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Good philosophy you got there.
I use Alcohol 120% for every kind of backup (MDF-images). It never let me down, so far... It also features the best virtual CD/DVD-drive, in my opinion.
Nero, CloneCD, DaemonTools and others are quite crappy in this aspect. (In my opinion, again!)
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No denying A120% is a great tool for legitimate users, but it's outlawed in many parts of Europe (but luckily not in my country). Guess why ElBy (old Amiga wizards, did you know that?) had to sell off CloneCD...
Anyway, tools like A120% should really NOT be needed, and IF they are needed, then the publishers who insist on using copy protections should provide licenses for A120% to legitimate buyers at no extra cost. Granted, A120% isn't expensive, but it's the principle of the thing.
I'm going with Daemon, or even Microsoft's Virtual CD Control Panel (tool for beta testers, but publicly available on microsoft.com) which can only handle ISO but is free for everyone.
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I guess nowadays you don't have to worry about games fitting on floppies anymore. 
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True, but my point would be that LucasArts, in an era of plentiful copyprotections on floppies (on non-PC-formats anyway) insisted on producing fully standards-compliant disks (only using manual checks) even for those systems that could handle really devious technical copy protection schemes (can you say Amiga?).
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It nearly brought tears in my eyes, reading your statement about 'storing games for generations to come'.
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What can I say - I'm an enthusiast and I believe that the cultural heritage of the early gaming industry is just as important to preserve as any other cultural treasure (even had a web project to this end going a few years ago, but the response from major developers wasn't there. Minor but well-known developers, on the other hand, were enthusiastic (and still are)). After all, we are seeing a major decrease in caringly designed timeless games these days, and we need to have the old games that stand the test of time still among us to look back on and be inspired. This means they still have to be playable and the source has to be available for study and porting to whatever the-next-big-really-new-operating-system is going to be.
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Although I agree with the use of the backup, it would make it a hell of alot easier for Piracy. Piracy can ruin small developers if they are not carefull.
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You are right, but why should it make my life harder as a legitimate user who just wants to take proper care of my original discs... besides, in my country copy protections violate the most basic digital consumer right, a right that by law cannot be overridden by companies, but on the other hand they can't be punished for trying to override it, so the law is sort of toothless, much to the chagrin of consumers and collectors like myself.