But the PS5 hasn't been announced?... Did I miss the official announcement, or are we conflating a display of unspecified next-gen equipment for a PS5 announcement?

If it does, it'll be mid- to late-2022. Maybe as far forward as 2023.

But that's if it does. Right now it's comparatively selling well because its only competition are stale platforms that launched 6 years ago. The release of PS5/Xbox Scarlett will shift the bottom line of the gaming market, and it remains to be seen if the Switch has the technical prowess to maintain relevant on a performance basis.

By the time the next generation of home consoles hit, the tables will have turned and Switch will be the stale platform competing against the new hotness... Except the new hotness in this case won't simply be peak last-gen performance in handheld mode, it will be next-gen performance. Maybe the handheld aspect continues in the Switch's favor... But maybe the new paradigm in console power overrides that.

See it came off more to me as an admission that they're working on next-gen equipment. But no name, no pictures, and the video (despite being leaked) was originally shown privately?

I don't consider that an announcement of a platform. That's a hardware showcase for what they intend on using in the next platform. Confirmation of existence, but not a proper announcement.

Well, if you wanna say it came after a PS5 announcement, then I'd say it needs to be an announcement. Showing prototype hardware and concept aren't the same as saying "Behold, the PlayStation 5". Sony admitted to the existence of next-gen, but they confirm the existence of next-gen early in every generation by admitting R&D is taking place for the next platform. Where are we going to draw the line?

I suppose I would call that line debatable, but if you want to give him the nod based on where you draw the line, then I can't really judge you for me explicitly not giving him a nod based on my line. Agree to disagree.

Except now I know that it's a fundamental disagreement on definitions and not just wondering who received misinformation that could be corrected on either side.

We got a little more than prototype and concept. And even if it was as you said, would be the first time I remember seeing a next gen sucessor being show presented/confirmed this way. So it on a being nice to shadow it is acceptable to consider that an announcement of PS5. And saying that a name have been given on the case of PS5 is funny since there is probably 99:1 chance of it being PS5.

Was any of the technology used still in development? I'm fairly certain I read that SSD they were using was still in late stage development. That would make any model they're using still technically prototype. It wasn't the announcement of a PS5, it was just a showcase for some of the tech they intended on using. Yes, confirmation that a new console is coming. No, I don't find it to be a proper announcement.

Probably the same reason as you, I have a hard time not replying to people when they quote me.

Eeeeerrrrr until like 3-6 months before the console actually release it is still in development.

You can bet devs already have the intended specs (which can change just like PS4 had a double RAM that only first party knew because it was very near the launch of the console) and it isn't unusual that they would already have intended dev kits, but also not unusual that the final dev kit is delivered very near the launch as well. I remember case of it being finished after the HW was already out.

So even PS4 that was revealed in Feb and launched in Nov wasn't totally finished, from what I remember there wasn't even any game show in the event.

All together we can safely say that PS5 and nextbox were formally announced.