I was very delighted to see a thread like this posted, and would like to give the op a great big hug :)
NPD Group did a study, titled Gamer Segmentation II, (posted by Gamespot last month), where they interviewed 11, 638 gamers and comprised them into 6 different segments to represent how the overall market buys and plays their games.
Out of the gamers NPD Group interviewed, 33% were identified as "Avid PC Gamers" who purchased an average of 5.6 games a year and gamed on their PC an average of 13.6 hours a week.
The next largest group, defined as "Secondary Gamers" represented 22%, with the PC being the main platform for 2/3 of them (the other third occupying consoles).
Coming in third, the "Avid Console Gamers" represented only 20%, and in last place, also occupying only consoles, was the "Heavy Gamers" which represented only 2% of the gamers interviewed.
The other two groups were the "Mass Market Gamers" (15%) and the "Casual Kid Gamers" (8%). Both categories gamed on a mix between consoles and PCs.
The news item can be found here:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173525.html
I'd also like to address the issue of cost-effectiveness with a console over a PC. While it is quite possible to spend upwards of $3k on a highend system, it is also very feasible to still get a powerful machine for under half that. In fact, if you include the cost of, let's say a brand new HD-TV and other components for your console, it's very possible that a PC could cost less than what you would pay for such other premium items for you console maching.
PC titles also support a magnitude of settings one can adjust based on the performance of their system (AA, AF, in-game settings, etc).
But then again, I'm not on some crusade trying to convert all console gamers to PC's. However, like the op and several other members have stated, I'd just like to see PC titles garner the same limelight as titles from almost all other platforms.
