When I'm producing content, I don't want to care about the files. I do care, because the technical reasons behind my choice of formats, compression schemes or packaging methods are important. But I'd really rather not have to be involved in those things.
I'm looking forward to the day when the steady march of abstraction provides tools that effectively take "files" away from me.
I think you're confusing the format of a file with the abstraction of a file as unit of data. Another way to look at the iPad is that it has files but it limits how you're able to work with them.
As a content producer, you want to able to take your unit of data (photo, image, document, etc) and use many different applications to work on it. You might want to make a copy of it, rename it, or move it to other machines too.
No abstraction will effectively take "files" away from you without also taking away the functionality behind them. I'm honestly not sure you've thought through the consequences of that.
I'm not saying the physical file as fundamental computing construct is going anywhere.
I'm saying software is getting to the point where the details of file storage won't be relevant, even to producers of content. Whether your resource is one file, five files or five parts of five larger files will be as relevant 'tomorrow' as where the disk controller has put physical bits on a platter or memory cell 'today'.
The details still matters and always will; there are certainly good and bad ways to store those bits depending on the varying contexts. But no-one's thinking about it when they save a file; no-one's hand-tweaking each decision for individual performance or organizing it so you'll remember physically where you put it.
I'm looking forward to the day when the steady march of abstraction provides tools that effectively take "files" away from me.
(Edit: grammar)