It kinda can but not as easily.

Back when I just downloaded everything under the sun on Napster/Limewire, I'd make highly curated CDs of known-hits as well as ones where I sprinkle in some random songs that were in my downloads that I'd never heard before. Not exactly the same, but I've definitely listened to a CD I made and been like "what's that song?! I love it!".

Plus, for road trips, everyone would usually burn a CD or two of their own to swap in (a precursor to "pass the aux cord") so there was some novelty/variety.