Why not? It's a feature many people love and want (like me) and you don't ever have to look at them or anything. I don't see any downsides in it at all. 

Scroll up.

I like how some of you guys down playing Sony innovation with third parties. If that's the case then don't make threads begging for scale down ports. Yeah you know what thread I'm talking about.

I basically addressed why there would not be other avenues in my second paragraph, here I'll repeat it again:

"This gen no one was gonna buy Microsoft's og vision for current gen, 500 euro Xbones, accept the DRM nonsense or the delayed launches for Tier 2 and 3 countries. Sony singlehandedly saved the industry, the PS4 came just at the right time, from 2011-2013 it seemed console were headed toward extinction with the mobile hype, PS360 on their last legs and Wii U bomba. Every article on tech sites pronounced the console dead. Many publishers were not convinced consoles would still be viable and that explains why there were so few games in the early years of gen 8"

So basically, gaming as we know it would die if there was no PS4. People buy the console because it is a desirable product. Playstation is the only gaming platform with a global reach, it is not like Xbox or Nintendo that is popular in a select few countries, the PS brand is popular nearly everywhere in the world. The fact that Nintendo and MS blundered had little effect on the desirability of the PS4.  PS4 was never gonna be a 2nd or 3rd choice. Also there would be no GTAs or Fifas without the PS1 or PS2.  As for PC alone, it is not big enough to sustain triple A budgets on its own.

"I'm not sure where you're coming up with this idea that PS4 saved the industry" Is also addressed in my 2nd paragraph. This is the 1st gen where the concept of consoles was seriously challenged, mobiles were taking over, Wii U just failed. The amount of years it takes to make the average game is around 2-3 years, in the "doom years" of 2010-early 2013, the years games had to be greenlit for them to be released in the years 2014 and onwards. There's no other reason for the lackluster game releases at the start of the gen. They took a wait and see approach, once the PS4 was more popular than they expected pre release and it took off and broke sales records, more greenlits happened and we've seen increase in game releases since 2016.

"a lack of loyalty and predictability on the part of third-parties" You can't really expect 3rd parties to be loyal to Nintendo when they never have been close. Considering the technical gap between the consoles it's hard to port the latest AAA game to Nintendo's system. I'm sure if Switch was close to Xbone specs it would get more Western support.

Sorry, OP, this kind of thread just isn't going to work on this website.  That title alone probably burst a few blood vessels and it's all your fault.  

You'd better watch out, RavenXtra bans people for comments like ... haha, just kidding, I'm pretty sure you're safe.

Are you sure those are the same people doing that?

Essentially Wii U's problem was it was too close to the others as far as gaming, and not nearly powerful enough/or released soon enough to compete. They just removed themselves completely from the equation again like they did Wii (for better or worse). It's successful (which was never really a question), but it sucks we are still dealing with sub 1080p while others are nearly hitting (or will be this holiday season) 4k. Even if you are not a 4k owner, there can be no doubt that any game pushing any sort of graphics look worse on Switch than any other device.

It's sad we won't see any 1st party games that really looks close to even vanilla PS4/Xbone for at least another 5 years, but that's the reality we live in. I could only imagine what a LoZ or Metroid would look like, but oh well. Maybe next gen.

What Nintendo learned from Sony? Not stop using friend codes. That's one.

I really don't know how to react to things like "gaming as we know it would die if there was no PS4," when Xbox One and PC offer very similar experiences. In fact, the PlayStation ecosystem moves closer to the PC world every quarter, it seems. 

The fact is the console market is shrinking, and PS4 has done nothing to reverse that trend. It's simply winning over the console enthusiasts that remain. PlayStation isn't expanding the pie; it's taking over a larger part of an ever-shrinking pie. 

So, no, PS4 isn't the savior of the console industry and it isn't the ultimate justification of console gaming. It's a great system with awesome exclusives...isn't that enough? Why do we need to venture into apocalyptic territory?

As for the last paragraph, I never requested or assumed any loyalty from third-parties. I said Nintendo, because of its stable of first-party games, can survive without the patronage of AAA third-parties.

If you disagree with my opinion, thats totally fine.Most people here seems to disagree with me, or at least dont agree fully with it.Having said that, I am legitimate with my opinion.I wrote this because thats what I think and was not some feeble attempt to get under anyones sking.If you disagree with me, please state so then and if possible, explain why.But dont go on accusing me of trolling or flaiming.If you so wish, look through my post history to see that Im not trying to get anyone upset with this.Otherwise, I ask you nicely to refrain from posting in this thread if you have nothing worthwhile to write.