thats a  good question, but it may not apply to the thread question unless you site that as a reason why MS shouldn't leave the industry!

LOL, I wandered a little bit (as almost usual, my fault, I can't help it since high school times  ), but it's not totally off-topic this time, as some people really think Sony and MS should leave because Malstrom says so!    (For some of them it's almost become like Pythagoreans' "Ipse dixit"  ).

You are wrong. The first time I picked up a PS2 controller I put it down within a few minutes of playing...it just didn't feel right at all, I didn't pick up another controller for a year or so. the first time i picked up the Xbox controller ("S" style, not the "Duke") It felt so good an natural...then along came the 360 controller, nothing beats it as far as ergonomics, functionality, feel, and durability go. FYI the D-Pad fix I did was incredibly easy and was literally no trouble at all. I just unscrewed the back, took the innards out, cut slits in between the contact pads in the rubber, put all the electronics back in, buttoned her up and presto! The D-pad works as it should!

Anybody who does is not a gamer, or a smart consumer. Competition forces companies to produce better cheaper products.

I bet you have never heard of this book

Bet you never read it before. 

Actually, I own it and have read it the whole way through.

As much as I dislike the 360 as a console and the fact everyone ignores it's many many faults including next to no good exclusives (pc/360 games are NOT exclusive) I have to admit it has done alot for gaming, by pure accident of course,

Wow...pathetic, pc/360 games ARE exclusives if you are talking console (which most people are since Console gaming and PC gaming are very different), and aside from RROD (which has been all but eliminated) and overpriced paraphernalia (which are, for the most part, completely unnecessary) I see no other faults. 

Without the xbox we wouldn't have the trophies/acheivement system (which some games benefit from and other games it's kinda tacked on, Mirror's Edge is one that added gameplay value), online on the ps3 probably wouldn't be as good as it is now, alot of PC devs would of stayed on the PC (bioware and valve most notably), and alot of the great first party Sony games that came out these past years might not have if it wasn't for the competition, so yea, personally I'd rather Windows fail and MS leave that and someone capable steps in and make a OS that works without needing 2 gigs more ram for any game you want to play compared to any other OS