Releasing a game-system with no intention of supporting it with 1st party exclusive software is ridiculous, and Sony has shown that they have no intention of supporting a handheld at the first sign of struggle

So a hybrid, not a handheld?We already have the Switch for that.

I'm fine with the Switch as spiritual Vita successor which has adapted most parts I love about the Vita plus strong first party support.

And Sony can focus its resources on PS4 plus PSVR, supporting a third platform wouldn't work well anyways.

The market would be pretty dang small for something like that...

Wasn't the Vita already a lot more powerful than the 3DS, that is the reason the Vita failed is not because it wasn't powerful enough, so releasing a more powerful Vita isn't going to fix it's problems.

If someone at Sony mentioned this idea at a meeting they deserved to be fired on the spot

vita failed due to total lack of first party support and big third party support. mostly because it was released 2-3 years late.

If Sony actually puts a decent line up and support for at least 2-3 years regardless of sales, then I would buy it in a heart beat. Also make the memory Micro SD and not some in house overpriced crap like they did with the Vita. It's been 6-7 years since the release date and the price for a 16 GB storage is still $40. Get real Sony.

I'd buy it. I never mind a system that can play PS1 games :P

if Sony makes another handheld that's not a straight up smartphone it should be a portable PS4 that plays all PS4 games

No need, Sony was able to successfully get all the major non-Nintendo handheld games back to consoles so the need of another handheld from them is no longer warranted.