In my opinion the Xbox One S > The PS4 Slim in design and value as a console, so the remodel definitely helped. Also people pre ordered the PS4 Pro which is just the best bang for 399,- if you are buying a console and plan or own a 4k television.
Anyway, originalle the Xbox One looked uglier then the PS4 launch model, and offered no benefits over the competitor except some exclusive games.
Over the years Microsoft has added some things to improve this value proposition. They added the support for external hard drives, making it no big deal to own a 500GB model and options to really improve the loading speed in games by using a 7200RPM drive or SSHD/SSD
They also added backwards compatability, which in many games gives people the best experience of last generation games like mass effect, red dead redemption, Lost Oddesey, Fable and more.
Add the Xbox One S sexy model, with no power brick, and UHD support and I can deffenitely see why the Xbox isn't doing as bad as it did on launch. Microsoft has just been adding value.
They swayed me ass well, I still have a big X360 collection and next year when the Scorpio releases the Xbox will become my main platform again, and on launch there was no doubt I would never buy an xbox one, because the PS4 was just presented and launched so so much better.