I think he was looking for an objection or counter-point to these questions. My impression is that he was attempting to get the counter-punch to the general ideas about the system and thus find a balance within his article.
I suspect he wanted answers like "I believe in" "The system is great" etc
Lastly, look at this from the outside. Most of the PS fans on this site and others have hit rock bottom and they look at the successes by looking up from 2007 or whenever and say "Look how far we've come" whereas a journalist looking in from the outside sees PS2>PS1>PS3 and the PS3 as a complete failure when compared to the previous consoles.
When you look at how Nintendo fell, they fell upwards with the N64 and actually sold more consoles than before and it wasn't until the GC generation where things became untennable.
Tease.
