I'm very new to the digital world, as in just signed for my first machine yesterday, but I think there's situations where you should do both. We outright bought the machine, and can tell you we saved A LOT of money. Plus now, our ROI is under 2 years if we just print what my company has printed, and do not get another single job. Plus, at the end of our service contract, even if the technology is out of date for us, the machine has paid for itself plus provided profit and we have an asset worth at least 5-10k at minimum. But I'm in a different situation where the machine doesn't need to make money for our business to survive.
So for our business, buying was a no brainer. No risk, no monthly payments, and saved tons of money on the machine. But, we had the capital to buy. A lot of places don't.
And as for leading anything that depreciates, I will never lease a car. But I'm weird, I drive them until the wheels fall off lol.