I think a lot of the anger that people have is based upon their own definition of what a generation is and what it means to be in a different generation ... Think about it this way, a higher numbered generation is not necessarily a better generation but it does represent a reaction to the previous generation and a rejection of the values of the previous generation; the number is really just a representation of the sequence that they arrived in, and you could adequately define them as the Red, Yellow, Blue and Beige generation if you wanted to.
To this day we still see companies produce very successful "first generation" consoles with their 5 in 1 arcade games that attach to the TV, and there is nothing saying that the introduction of the "fourth generation" consoles will mean an end to the "third generation" way of doing things. In fact, it is quite possible that in the (relatively) near future a company could see the direction of the industry in the 4th generation, see certain "flaws" and move in a completely different direction which might share a lot of characteristics with previous generations.
