Respect to OP, I wouldn't build my own but order parts and ask the shop to do it if I wasn't familiar with building.
I don't want to know how much money I wasted on unnecessary upgrades in my enthusiast years. For example there was a period I was obsessed with building a silent gaming PC, ughh.

(I'm quoting your tl;dr but I did read the whole thing.)

1. So the "you could make a PC for cheaper and better" argument is never used, as it is simply not true, unless it assumes that you need a PC anyway, whether it be for work, school, or whatever you need.  For the most basic, yet modern, PC, you would need to spend about $300.  So if you spend $600 on building a gaming PC, which you also use for your other needs, only $300 of that is really spent on the gaming side of it.  And on top of that it improves your experience on all the other stuff you do because you went with better components.

But regardless of how you look at that argument, it is clear that the real savings from PC gaming comes from the long term.  You don't pay an online subscription, and the games are so much cheaper it's not even funny.  Or maybe it is funny, depending on your sense of humor.

2. You said "the hassle of researching and building isn't worth the savings you could make" and I couldn't disagree more.  Learning is the greatest thing we could do as humans.  Even if you were to do countless hours of research just to learn that PC gaming is not for you, you would forever be better off because you have reached that conclusion not through blindness nor fanboyism, but by considering both sides and making the most educated decision possible.

I respect your opinion but I
(1) am very comfortable with PC components
(2) enjoy putting them together
(3) can never go back to spending £38 - £45 on games
(4) will NEVER pay for online, like ever
(5) can never go back to 900p30 or 1080p30 after experiencing 1440p60.

It also doesn't help that Im a Software Developer by profession so PCs will always be a necessity and far more important to me than a console ever will. To each their own.

There never was an argument. PCs will never be cheaper and consoles will never be more powerful. They're completely different entities with completely different use cases. It's a stupid as comparing a cheap smartphone with a handheld.

Interesting read, makes me glad I'm a Nintendo gamer which makes buying a pc obselete. I know if I want to play a Wii U game, the only place I can do that is Wii U. Well, or wait until a emulator comes along that can run all commercial games well but even that has its problems. I wouldn't want to wait years from now to play Smash, Kart, SM3DW, Bayo 2, ect. Beyond that going through the trouble of finding those games later down the line or having them bought but not being able to play them (or the multiple issues of illegaly downloading them).

Whilst it can be more expensive to build a PC, there's also many more things that can be done with a PC than with a console. Also, free online and cheaper games can eventually make up for the initial costs.

What you are forgetting however is that once the hastle of building it is done, you have an infinitely more useful and flexible platform, from deisgn software, development software to music creation, emulation and a mass of ways to watch video and listen to music, ingame soundtrack? Fire up your favorite music player and enjoy your music for ANY game even retro.

People often forget this major difference when comparing the two.

When you build a PC you aren't just getting something to play games on, you get a whole lot more than that, and if that isn't worth the additional hastle/expense, stick to console gaming.

Also, if you are so inclined, a decent PC nets you unlimited free access to play any console game from the PSP and ds all the way back to the colecovision, and every single game ever made for each of the many, many systems.

I find it really strange when people want to jump into PC gaming and their immediate thing to build on is a lower spec to that of a console, this will always be my response:

The first time I got into building my own PC afew years back I knew beforehand the extra costs that were going into building a brand new rig, I knew I;d have to buy a keyboard, knew I;d have to buy a mouse, an OS etc, i knew all that because for the longest time that's what I;ve always seen being sold in stores both online and general eletronic stores where I live, not once have I suffered an epic braindead moment where I thought I lived in a world where none of those items were sold seperately and that PC's were always 100% pre-builts, even my folks who admit they are total ludites know that building your own PC requires seperate parts, that's why they go buy their own laptops and tablets because they know building one from scratch is not for them.

PC gaming isn't the sort of shoe that fits everyone, same with console, handheld and mobile/tablet gaming, I hate tablet gaming and the prices and included specs of all tablets and phones because I have a different set of expectations and the same goes for what my wallet allows. PC gaming is essentially expensive to start with if you want a good build but it makes up for that with cheaper games, mods and all the toehr trimmings that PC gaming has going for itself, your build will be as good as your wallet allows, go for a cheaper build and don't expect to run everything on high let alone ultra, run at medium and expect to go with high and maybe 1080/60, go with high/enthusiast and expect to run most if not all settings at ultra and run at 1080/60fps and for older games DSR to 2-4k and get 30-60fps with added visual quality.

The way you make it sound originally is that PC gaming doesn't really have much going for it except those enthusiasts who just love building their own rigs, you mention that you respect a corp who does it all for you and yet life isn't really meant to be about getting everything handed to you on a silver platter, the fact you actually went out and bothered to learn about what you were getting into was a good place to start though since some people end up jumping in and then shitting on the platform base rather than their own knowledge/money.

I'll always see myself gaming mainly on my PC though seeing as how over time I've adjusted to how to build one, how much to spend on parts I want/need and looking at deals on where to buy games I want and at the end of the day I do want quality and the ability to mod my games and frankly PC gaming does offer both of those in huge quantities that isn't really on a comparable scale as a prebuilt console built at a cheaper price, those that like to think older hardware>new are simply lying to themselves.

This.

A PC should not be a simple replacement for a console, it should be an upgrade. PC gamers aren't raving about it because it's so financially feasable but simply because it's objectively the better experience if you put some money and effort into it.

It's like deciding between the shitty small waterpark that's around the corner and costs $5 entry and the super adventure waterpark with the big slides that costs $50 entry and is 50km away. Some will be ok with the small one but others are willing to pay more and drive farther to have the better experience altogether.