I think you're misunderstanding that the capacity of Azure and xCloud would be the same thing. xCloud runs on Xbox hardware. They have a limited amount of Series X hardware available for cloud streaming. There is essentially an Xbox Series X dedicated to each person that plays, they're not using PC ports etc on xCloud that would allow them to use various server hardware, they have to use dedicated hardware specifically for running xCloud games.

If they have more people trying to play than Series X hardware available in their Data Centres then they can't take more people, regardless of the power of Azure.

They now have every person using xCloud running Series X hardware instead of Xbox One hardware, but doesn't mean they have unlimited Series X consoles available. The more popular xCloud becomes the more Series X consoles they will have to produce for use in their data centres for cloud streaming to increase capacity.

Yes, in fact it was only upgraded to 1080p in 2021, it basically happened the same time as Series X upgrade. Was 720p before.

It's probably future proofing since the server blades would be rendering the game at 4K like actual hardware then streaming it to you at 1080p + compression image loss makes xCloud fairly blurry at the moment but they should be able to flip a switch at some point and enable UHD Streaming which with compression will still be blurry but not as bad whilst taking 4x the bandwidth but as you said if MS can have 500k concurrent users on the server hardware playing at 1080p then Azure is big enough to let them play at 4K you would think.

Joe really should! He's honestly become one with the Halo universe at this point lol. He's written a book for the franchise as well, and his writing efforts in games like ReCore and Crackdown 3 were not his best by a long shot. He's so synonymous with Halo and clearly is always his best work, that he should work with this franchise for the remainder of his career. 

As far as quality goes, GOTG is gonna be amazing compared to FC6 lol. It's a very straightforward, linear experience, but it's a thoroughly entertaining one! Combat can be repetitive but the dialogue (there's never a moment where there's no banter between the Guardians) story, graphics, and especially the banging 80s soundtrack is top notch! It has some very light but fun RPG mechanics to mix things up

Done with The Gunk.
Nice game even if a bit short. Maybe I expected a bit too much from the trailers.
Lots of exploration, some basic combat and a couple of mostly simple puzzles.

Starting to feel the burn on AC Odyssey. Good God, I can't imagine how much bigger Valhalla has to be. I'm on the second part of the last DLC 1000'ed main story. Did like majority of the ?s too, minus like 4 in the last region.

I finished it last week and felt it was just ok. Agreed it was short and the story was just meh. I cared enough to finish the 1000GS and then promptly uninstalled it.

On the other hand, I've also been playing <deep breath> Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, and have actually enjoyed myself with it quite a bit.  It's very much a Castlevania: SOTN clone with a couple new dynamics with fire and wind elements that are pretty interesting.  I've finished the story and am doing some post-game things to see if I can get 100% achievements on that one too.

Haven't had the opportunity to pump in too many hours into Origins yet, but If I don't pick up my pace I'll be delaying playing Odyssey till after Elden Ring and Tiny Tina.

I may also be playing Origins wrong, if there is such a thing.  It's my first Assassin's Creed to ever play and I find myself easily sidetracked.  I can spend hours just hunting down Lions, Hippo's, and ambushing the cargo transfers for resources to do my upgrades.  I also like shoving some of the innocent people around.

I just barely got this achievement yesterday.

And I'm already 30 hours in.  

I feel like your 170 plus hours will be matched.  I'm really enjoying my gameplay and hope Odyssey is just as good. I will most likely play something in between the titles to try and avoid burn-out.