After reading this article, I feel like I should know what actually happened on the show - I don’t though?

How about a digital ticket? A QR code to be presented on my phone that I got via email? That seems very feasible. I still don’t see what advantage an NFT would have here. Seriously asking because I’ve been confused for the last few years and nobody is explaining in a way that makes sense to me.

I’m generally not aware of many cases of ownership of anything being in question, so many in fact that we need an entirely new way of dealing with them. Also look at how many monkey pictures have been straight up stolen with, apparently, no way to prove that they were stolen, because stuff can’t be deleted on the blockchain.

Why can’t I buy that ticket directly from the artist/venue? Why do I need the receipt?

Unlikely. What I consider vital news may be entirely different than what you consider vital.