And in one sentence you highlight the problem that is the elephant in the room: PC might be the best way to play these games, if you spend the money for the specs to make it so. But Sony, like Microsoft before them, are basically starting to say the quiet part out loud.
That is where the longer-term brand damage to the console side could come into play. If I'm an enthusiast gamer on PS5 and realize I can afford to wait a little for some of Sony's 1P games, only to see them show up on PC shortly after and with better performance & more features, AND Sony themselves are actively telling me that PC version is coming (either explicitly in adverts or implicitly through an established cadence of previous ports) soon...why do I need to buy a PlayStation 6?
Hell, why do I need to buy the PS5 Pro that's supposedly coming out next year? No matter what the console could offer me, if I'm the enthusiast who is willing to shell out $500 - $600 for a PS5 Pro, I'm probably also willing to spend 2x that (or more) on a powerful CPU & GPU combo. Getting better-than-PS5 Pro performance in resolution and framerates, mod support, free online, cheaper purchasing price etc. is a steal.
The problem is Sony's flirtation in basically alluding to or advertising those benefits upfront to a portion of their PlayStation console base who are primarily enthusiasts. They're the sort who look more forward to new PS console exclusives announced, not more 1P PC ports. They
DON'T look forward to being asked to pay 33% more for online play while PC gamers continue to get the same games (in some cases now Day 1, as with upcoming Helldivers 2) for the same price and free online. Every bit more Sony continues to prioritize PC, if it's with the focus on console side as they've displayed for the past year, is the closer they get to PlayStation having a brand identity crisis.
Soon enough you're going to have some PlayStation CEO on an X-Cast equivalent, venting like a child and crying about their console lacking an identity, and fending off accusations they're treating their console players like second-class citizens in their own ecosystem when actions prove otherwise. I didn't want that for Xbox, I don't want that for PlayStation. But it seems like you couldn't give less of a damn, as long as it means more 1P games on PC, quicker than before, with nothing to balance that out on the console side.
1: I never once asked for Alyx on PSVR2. I don't care. But it's interesting to consider Sony wanting to bring their 1P games to Steam, yet Valve seem apprehensive in doing similar with even one of their own, to a peripheral no less, of Sony's.
2: You wanting Demon's Souls & Bloodborne IS asking/port-begging for games. You're just specifying the particular games you want
3: If the current PC porting strategy creates long-term bleed out that negatively affects console market performance (in generated unit sales, revenue, etc.), then that does eventually affect the customers of that platform brand.
4: The problem isn't that PC has advantages. The problem is that Sony increasingly placate to those advantages while feeling the only "advantage" the console needs is getting the games six months/1 year/2 years earlier. At a higher price, and in some cases without all the PC additions coming over to the console side.
There've been something like maybe 3-4 PC ports announced and released by PlayStation over the past year, but no new 1P traditional titles announced from their internal studios. Yes, some GaaS titles were revealed back in May, but those are likely either getting significantly retooled, cancelled, or will be Day 1 on PC. None of which are bad things in and of themselves, but become bad when there is no balance in delivering equivalent releases or reveals 100% focused on the console playing the brand's known strengths.
I think the longer I have these conversations the better I can understand who's really familiar with PlayStation's console legacy/history and who's more wet behind the ears or a latecomer to that, because it does feel like a lot of those who are both 100% fine with the current PC strategy and want even more of it (including Day 1 for all games), just don't have an appreciation for PlayStation as a console brand or the significance of its history as a console brand in this industry.
. Sony also makes their own processors so that's incorrect as well, they're not beholden to anyone. ARM doesn't compromise backwards compatibility either, Apple proved that with their M1/M2 Macs.