What if the 9th gen launched with Standard and Premium hardware!

[SvennoJ]

And which hardware spec should developers target to optimize for and show off launch titles?

Inititial software sales are already lower on a new platform, and now you want devs to put effort in multiple versions right from the start. Either it's gonna run a bit shit on the base model or the premium model isn't worth the premium price at launch. It invites a wait and see approach for consumers, slowing down initial HW sales.

Offer SKUs with different storage options instead, SSD vs HDD models, or a 4K blu-ray model next to a digital only model and let devs optimize for one HW spec at launch.