Analog consoles don't really get "dated" too quickly. They are what they are. Digital consoles seem to get that way just because things change so fast in the digital realm. In the end however, I would not consider it to really be "dated" either. If you compare to the newest latest and greatest I could see how you might see it that way though. Either way though, it will still do everything it did when it was new.
As for longevity and things going wrong, I would almost say that the yamaha might be a little better that way. The thing is with analog desks, things start to need work in little peices. A pot here and there, maybe a channel here and there etc... With digital things typicall y don't work that way. With digital, when things go wrong, everything kind of goes wrong. It really depends on how you look at it I guess. Yamaha builds a pretty solid digital console. If you are looking at the 02R 96, that is a pretty good sounding digital desk. Keep in mind though that there will be a pretty steep learning curve. As for the build on the Soundcraft ghost, it is pretty decent. Soundcraft still cut a lot of corners when you compare it to the nicer stuff, but it is still a fairly solid build. The biggest problem with them seems to be power supplies going out, and the use of cheaper pots and switches. The power supply issue is hard to track down because not everyone maintains them like they should. The pots and switches are unfortunate, but in the scheme of things is a relatively cheap and easy thing to buy, maintain and replace.
The biggest thing here is that it is hard to compare these two things because they are so different. The SOundcraft with have a little more "character" in its sound, but the yamaha will be a little more neutral sounding. The Soundcraft is a budget inline console where the 02R96 is a miid range digital console. The yamah offers a lot more features, but may require some add on cards to get the right i.o count for what you need. In the end, from what you have described, I would probably go with the Soundcraft since you plan on using with an outboard 24 track. The SOundcraft will give you all the i/o need right away without upgrades, and will be a little easier to learn. If you were runing pretty tightly with a DAW, then the yamaha may have been a better way to go for the integration there. Basically, the Ghost was designed to pair up with a multitrack machine and offers in line monitoring like a tradtional studio desk.
