I love that people had to ask "what missteps?" when they are in the very first post.*
I would dispute some of the list:
Slim/Optical Port:
Come on, it's not like this is their only new model, this is the cheap model.
If excluding the port keeps down it's costs, fine, their is a high end model for that.
-> Meh.
Although to be fair, that does reinforce the point about...
UHD-Blu-Ray exclusion even in Pro model:
I don't think it matters that not every customer needs/wants the feature, it just feels cheap to exclude it.
This is the Pro model, and the inclusion of the capacity can't be costing MS more than $10, so just do it.
Arguments about streaming are just arrogance vs. market not interested in that, and honestly is hypocritical:
1) 4K streams quality is closer to standard BD than UHD-BD
2) If downloads > UHD-BD, same goes for games, so no drive is needed, period.
Another reason it should be included is eventually when Sony moves to PS5, there likely will be Pro/5 only games.
Those could benefit from volume size of UHD-BD, except for the fact that at least the current SKU doesn't have it.
-> This *IS* an issue, though if they only excluded it from Slim, I'd be more "meh", it being the cheap model.
Patch needed to benefit from Pro:
This is about covering the cases where devs won't support own product.
Fact is, exposing Pro hardware to games NOT DESIGNED FOR IT could very well cause some sort of bug.
Not in every case, but Sony doesn't want to cause a bug.
For games where it is trivial to benefit from Pro power and no bug situation exists, it's trivial to release patch.
For games where more work needs to be done, those are exactly the ones where potential bugs lurk.
Sony does not want to damage the image of the Pro because devs who won't support their product.
Sony WANTS devs to patch their games for Pro, but if they won't, Sony can't be blamed for lack of support.
-> Meh.
No HDR pass-thru for PSVR:
This does seem to be design oversight that should be fixed with next SKU.
PS4/Pro, PSVR, & HDR TV are a large sum alltogether, and for HDR not work/require workaround is silly.
-> This *IS* an issue.
Mod situation:
While I understand people's desire, I see this as being consistent with long standing policy.
They were able to release at least some mods, so it's not like Sony is actively hostile to mods as such.
If that long standing policy was really a problem for you, you already moved onto other pastures, in whole or part.
-> Meh.
My take = Absence of UHD Blu-Ray lack and PSVR HDR pass-thru are only actual issues there.
And of course, there are work-arounds for PSVR/HDR that means nobody is screwed by it, it's just a design over-sight.
I don't know if the UHD-BD is about them being super stingy, or pushing some anti-disc agenda on people, Apple-style.
I might guess that by the time MS releases Scorpio, AND UHD TVs are more common, UHD-BD might be added to next SKU.
Still doesn't justify screwing early adopters over chump change.
(any cost could be factored into price if necessary, it's not like Sony offers "neat" $X99 prices around the world in all currencies)
How their success with games counters that? I say that just highlights that they should have taken high road here.
Their games, their overall reception for PS4 could have made this gen an unalloyed success for them re: mindshare.
These little things take away from that by however much. Certainly people will be looking at Scorpio because of UHD.
Whether on OG PS4 or Pro, people will certainly enjoy the great games on the platform, fair enough.
If people want to reduce this to "Sony are still winning, HA!", fine, but that doesn't make the issues disappear.
*Although to be fair, tip to OP:
Comprehension is easier when you break up topics with paragraphs/line breaks.
The sentence containing your list of missteps actually runs 4 lines on my screen.
