I'm not buying this story.

1. Sony has significantly more to gain by selling PS4pro's that will act as a gateway to game purchases, PS+, PSVue....etc than just selling a stand alone Movie player.

2. The laser in the PS4 is only capable of reading 2 layer BR discs. The ones found in UHD BR drives are capable of reading at least 4+ layers. I really don't see Sony putting in the hardware then disabling it.

I've probably mentioned this already; I would sooner believe (and even expect) that Sony can or will just sell a standalone UHD BR external drive that plus into and draws power from the PS4/PS4pro USB slot. The could sell that peripheral for $99. This puts them in a place where whoever wants it can just pick one up for themselves.

Yup I think you are right on point 2. 

The PS4 physically cannot play 4K UHDs. It simply does not have the drive capable of doing it, neither can the old XBox One models or Microsoft would've enabled playback across the board. 

There is no firmware update for a laser disc reader. 

They should have stated at the announcement and saved themselves from the sithstorm.

i'm very surprised that the ps4 pro doesn't support 4K blu ray support. the ps3's intergrated blu ray player helped sony win the format war over HD-DVD. Sony could've increased it's market share of 4K players with the ps4. market it as a all in one media player/game machine.

I doubt it. The article reads like a dude that didn't do enough research.

I honestly just don't care. I wish people would accept it as an annoyance and just move on. You don't want a gaming console because it can't play a dying movie format? Fine, then don't buy one. It's not for you. Honestly, I think the majority of the people complaining are simply those people that will simply never be happy with anything that doesn't have a particular brand name on it, and would never buy the Pro anyway. If it never gets UHD Blu-Ray support, then I. Don't. Care. I'm still buying one Day 1

That's a long OP. I'll keep it simple: It's long sighted.

I had $400 set aside for the PS4 Pro and several PS4 titles, so yes I was definitely planning on getting a PS4 Pro. Not any more. 

IMO this is a misguided mistake on Sony's part to push people to their Vue service, but streaming 4K quality defeats the point of 4K picture quality ... native disc content looks way better.

don't care about ultra blueray or not but i'd like to know if HDR is the hardware or software? i mean the difference between 1080p and 4k is clearly hardware because more pixels but what about the difference between 4k and 4kHDR?

Sony "controls" the living room with electronics, NOT just PS4 Pro.  And of course Microsoft is being agressive because they have no choice but to be.  Sony's business model is more in line with "controlling" the living room.  Microsoft's not so much.   Microsoft has to annouce the Scorpio ASAP to stay as relevant as possible with the past monentum of the PS4, and now the potential momentums of both the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.  And who knows how the market will be by the time the Scorpio the released.  That's the biggest gamble Microsoft faces right now.

EDIT: And for the record.  I don't think it's a mistake.  Does that make me more bias than you...?