Lol, this has got to be some of the strangest logic I have ever heard. We should thank MS for taking some poor practices and multiplying them to the Nth degree? No thanks. And some of your contributions to gaming are greatly exaggerated.
Online gaming was where the consoles were heading, anyway. A few failed consoles before the Dreamcast even attempted it. The PS2 also had an expansion slot from launch, with the intent to provide access to online multiplayer later. I will give credit to MS for finding a better integrated model, but we would have had the consoles online ready last gen without Live. And the fact still remains, MS is the one who actually popularized paying for online play on consoles, not Sega, and Sony went two gens not charging for online. Now, you can make the argument that console gaming is different, since we have moved to the model where most console makers need to provide their own servers, and I would agree with you. However, MS was also greedy and offered NOTHING in return for paying for online, unlike Sony. It was Sony's competittion that made them feel the need to switch models. Though, they still don't get it, as they just recently offered the same game two months in a row, giving much less value than PS Plus.
True, other console makers have come out with faulty HW. However, again, MS took it to the Nth degree. No console has had a failure rate of 33%-50% (probably much higher as the years have gone on) that the manufacturer KNEW about, yet rushed it out just so they could be first to market. Then, when the console broke months later, blamed the consumers, KNOWING full well their console was a architecture nightmare and was burning up. And it took a court case and two more chipsets (as well as years) to fully rectify the problem.
As for exclusivity, true exclusive agreements have happened before, but MS has extended that into the most ridiculous things, like betas and DLC a few months early. Personally, this doesn't bother me too much. I mean the betas/DLC eventually comes out, anyway. What I do dislike is MS's trend of not securing exclusive rights early on, allowing some games to actually be announced for other platforms (Alan Wake, with a much more promising premise, comes to mind), only for MS to realize they need more exclusives, so they just throw money at the devs/publishers. Of course, the ones that should really be botherd by this are Xbox gamers, since really MS only does this to make up for a lack of 1st party support. Which brings me to...
I don't think MS is the worst thing to happen to gaming, but many MS fans are. From what I have seen on this forum, and many others, is that half or more of their posts are just defending MS's poor policies and screwups. No fanbase defends their company of choice so vehemently and with such blinders on, that their company can do no wrong. Sony and Nintendo fans have criticized their companies of choice greatly, even forcing them to change or rectify bad choices. But, when it comes to MS, it seems its more the outcry of gamers of the other fanbases, as well as their decisions affecting sales, that force MS's hand. Again, going by forums, the majority of "true" MS fans felt that MS's policies for this gen were PERFECT. Many still wish they had gone with their originial plans and not listened to "Sony and Nintendo fanboys." I guess they would have been fine with the One selling ~15M-20M.
Seriously, what other fanbase has so many that would point the finger at the consumer, along with the manufacturer, when there was an obvious problem? RROD? "Just buy another, not a big problem." "You bought the cheaper model, what did you expect?" "Just buy the Jasper chipset 360, it fixed...Oh, nevermind just get the Japser chipset 360, THAT actually fixed it." Made excuses for Live costing, when Sony and Nintendo didn't charge anything. "Live is SOOO much better than PSN." That stopped being true after the first 2-3 years into the gen. I guess cross-game chat was just worth that much. And most recently, they complain that MS even changed their failed DRM policies. "Pretty much everyone has internet, now, so it's not a big deal." "It's a war on Gamestop, not gamer's rights." "Don't change your policies, it's just a bunch of Sony and Nintendo fanboys crying, not us." "You don't like their policies, just don't buy it." No wonder it takes so long for MS to change policies/decisions, where Sony takes days (maybe a week or two), most of their fanbase never gets mad at them.
I'm just glad that this gen, they will realize that they actually make up a very small section of the gaming population, with many previous fans switching sides. Power to the gamer. 
