Agree with parent. chipuni's strategy seems like trying to pigeonhole a reference when statistically, you're most likely always going to be on a computer and have access to a reference that's searchable.
The advantage for many is the actual physical association.
I liken it to learning how to get around a building by actually walking around the building, as opposed to just seeing a map. Ultimately, when there are no other distractions going on, one is probably as good as the other.
Not that I don't think you can't get this in a notes.txt. Just, I understand why some would want a physical card deck where they flip a question into an answer. Involving your body seems logical as a benefit for some.
One needs to have enough context to now how to formulate queries that can get handled by search. Having a larger vocabulary doesn't prevent one from using search, it enables one to look up more relevant information w/o having to rediscover it each time.
