I am pro-consumer and pro-choice.
That's exactly what I said. Your perspective is one-sided. I get where you're coming from, but I still don't agree and I don't see exclusives as a bad thing either, for reasons mentioned, the main and key one being that its a driver for innovation and creativity - and this is a FACT, supported by history, written by Sony itself, as opposed to the lackluster Xbox library in terms of unique content. We would not have had Okami, or Shadow of the Colossus, or a myriad of other unique concepts if it wasn't for Sony's approach to funding and content.
Its also not true that Sony is making less money off their console. You would do well to look at the numbers before those bold statements.
The reason MS is doing what its doing is because they cant be arsed to invest as much as Sony in new IP. They're happier buying up studios and publishers left and right, and then pushing that shit over their cloud services. Nothing in their strategy points at producing great new games, that's just something that also happens alongside a bigger business model.
That difference in approach again is an example of what I pointed out earlier: companies
need unique selling points.
push the "on" button and go. For them a console is the best choice over a PC.
This unique selling point doesn't exist anymore, and it hasn't since PS4. Games run crossplatform and are pretty much identical in the entire experience, the only difference being that on a console you don't use a launcher, but you click an icon just the same and then the game might have to update prior to being able to play.
Also, controller support, especially for ports, is perfect. You can couch game on a PC np. This reality actually supports the existence of exclusive content, again, for reasons mentioned.