I honestly don't think theres anything anti-consumer about it.
Playstation consumers don't really gain anything from being connected to X1 and SW. It's the ones with the smaller online communities that benefit.
So, without having some sort of advantage for playstation users i don't see why it would even be pro-consumer for Sony to do it. Pro-consumer to rivals customers? Yeah, sure. But why should they care?
I honestly care more about the paywall as you say OP. I have a principle not to pay for online play that is free on PC. So, without the paywall i will actually try the F2P titles and maybe give them some money on PS. On Xbox i never did. Xbox isn't nor ever was more pro-consumer than Sony. We just need to think back about who started malpractices with DLC and season passes and how supportive Microsoft was of it. Also, they themselves created the online play pay wall and must we recall how it was in the unveil of the X1?
So, yeah, those are things that matter to me. Cross play doesn't.
