CDs going the way of the dinosaur? Don't bet the rent. Neither new format has demonstrated the capacity to reach critical mass in the marketplace. Might happen, but I'd advise you to be as cautious with them as you were with CDs in the first place.
On your multichannel question, yes you can listen to multichannel disks on a two-channel system. Just understand what is happening: The multichannel recording is being "remixed" for two channels, according to either specific instructions on the disk or a generic formula used by your player. (At least, both approaches were supposed to be technically feasible; I don't know how this has worked out in actual practice--perhaps someone else can bring us up to date.) I've always been a little leery of either approach, but I haven't listened closely enough to 2-channel mixdowns yet.
On your multichannel question, yes you can listen to multichannel disks on a two-channel system. Just understand what is happening: The multichannel recording is being "remixed" for two channels, according to either specific instructions on the disk or a generic formula used by your player. (At least, both approaches were supposed to be technically feasible; I don't know how this has worked out in actual practice--perhaps someone else can bring us up to date.) I've always been a little leery of either approach, but I haven't listened closely enough to 2-channel mixdowns yet.