I have heard (anecdotally) that the digital SAT scores are lower than the paper scores or at least that it is harder to get a score over 1500–is there any actual published evidence that this is true?
No, the published evidence is that they are absolutely equivalent to one another.
“College Board conducted two concordance studies in the
spring and fall of 2022 to establish the direct relationship
between paper-based and digital SAT scores. These studies’
results support the hypothesis of a direct one-to-one
relationship between the two versions of the assessment.
In other words, the scores on the two versions of the SAT
are comparable, and scores from both tests can be fairly
evaluated side by side without a concordance table.”
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That brings to mind a quote from SpongeBob, “Why, once I met this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy’s cousin…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEVaXyu0lWc
Or, from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off;: “My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLWGDxGh2G4
Or, from REO Speedwagon’s “Take It On The Run:” “Heard it from a friend who / Heard it from a friend who / Heard it from another you been messin’ around”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G8jAPPjpGs
Just because you heard something fourth-hand does not make it true. 
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… heard from a person who did the digital (or had a kid who did) and wasn’t happy with their score presumably…
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Fwiw, my kid took it on paper in December & digitally in March. Exact same score both times.
That is not to say there is no difference between paper and digital sat scores. For example (as for now) the UCs do not accept the EBRW score from the DSAT for english placement. Might change in the future if the UCs are convinced they are equivalent.
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