which would contradict what they said to their shareholders just a few weeks ago

Why wouldn’t it work like this?

They asked what could go wrong.  I gave an answer.  Not a likely one, but still an answer.

This would better explain why Lockhart may exist and why it may be around 4TF. If Pro is going to become the 'base PS5', it's going to be a 4.2TF console for $299 by that time most likely. If MS sticks with XB1X specs, it'll be at least $349 if not $399, which won't be good for them up against a cheaper PS4 Pro that works with the PS5 ecosystem. You would have to assume in this case that Lockhart would have at least 8 cores, 8 Ryzen cores probably, but if it happens to only have 4 or 6 Ryzen cores, a casual will see the 8 core Pro and very well may assume it's better because more cores, which wouldn't be good for XB either.

I'm not so convinced that all cross gen games will necessarily be 30fps. If they are already set at that on PS4, then sure, they will stay that way even on PS5, but for the PS4 games running at 60fps, I think they will remain at that as well on PS5. What we may see is that with new upcoming cross gen games, the PS5 version may be able to play full 4k/60, while the PS4 version will be 900p/60, and Pro being 1440p/60.

You can never underestimate the power of a low price point. It helped PS2 sell over 155M units. My guess is the PS4 will be $199 by the time PS5 launches. Maybe even $179. And the Pro will be $299. The PS5 is probably going to be $150-$200 more than that. Budget shoppers will buy the PS4 or Pro, since they both will be supported for another 2-3 years after the PS5 launches.

Interesting. Makes me wonder how many people will wait to upgrade. Last gen had titles getting ported to 360 and ps3 with only graphical downgrades for a good 2 years or so. As Mentiel and others pointed out, I see many a consumer being cheap and waiting on next gen until prices fall. And that's not counting if Switch sales stay strong and affect Sony/Microsoft.

And so it should. - Probably a very strong hint that the Playstation 4 software library will translate very smoothly over to the Playstation 5 from a compatibility point of view.

If they do, they'll claim to make the game you deserve, sell it to you as 4 parts and change the gameplay and say it's the same game. You'll then get told condescendingly by other people to "play the original" if you don't like a certain change.

This makes be believe the PS4 SS rumors even more so. There is little reason to mess with Pro as is for the next 3 years, if even continue selling it. I would think PS should be able to sell Pro at $299 as is and break even by now, but they likely need to get PS4 on 7nm and shrink it to get it down to $199 and have the hardware be somewhat profitable. So shrink PS4 this holiday and worry about a 7nm Pro later, if it's even necessary, since the $299-$399 market is already saturated, and especially if PS4 is just as compatible with the PS5 as Pro is. A super casual or poorer person simply won't care or be able to afford a Pro, since they couldn't afford PS4 before, so there would be little need to reduce the Pro price, if continue selling it period.

Unless they were to drop PS4 and shrink Pro to 7nm and offer a slim model for $249, which is possible but much less likely.

Worst case scenario, they could have future cross gen games set up so that if they play at 60fps to make sure that PS5 is able to use a worthy amount of it's potential, have Pro run at 1080p/60 and PS4 at 720p/60. This would also be a way to keep selling Pro at a reduced price, enticing existing PS4 owners to upgrade to Pro, if they didn't have the money for PS5, so they could at least remain playing at 1080p/60.

I see them shrinking both.  I figured they would want to do the Pro first, but considering the OG model is making up 75% of their sales, they may want to get the price down as low as possible to bolster the dropping sales.  My guess is a $249 price this year, but they will definitely drop to $199 for the PS5 launch.  And we may see a further drop to $149-$179 before it's discontinued in 2022/2023.  The Pro will probably drop to $349 without a revision, but my guess is they also want to get the price lower on it, so it will get one the following year. 

They could have a $199 PS4 system for budget gamers, a $299 Pro for those who want a little more power under the hood, and the premium $449-$499 PS5 for those who want next gen graphics.  All 3 will get cross-gen support for at least a year or two, so there really isn't a need for them to have a weaker next gen system to compete with the Lockhart.  And by the time the PS4 is discontinued, PS5 will see its first price cut, probably dropping to the $399 sweet spot.