Honestly I feel like this disproves your point! Sure the PS4 game looks quite a bit better than the PS3 game, and sure a PS5 game is gonna look a quite a bit better than the PS4 game. But look how fantastic the PS3 game looks! While there is clearly a difference, both of them look great - both of them look realistic! So, does the bit higher level of realism in the PS4 game do anything to actually make the game better? Maybe at best it is a bit more atmospheric and that's it. From those two videos I wouldn't say it makes much of a difference at all to the game. It's just a bit prettier. Sure I'd take the prettier version of the slightly less pretty but still great looking version, but it isn't a huge difference and doesn't really affect the game at all.

Which is kinda the whole point of this thread. Not saying the next gen won't have a noticeable graphical upgrade to this gen (especially for those who don't play 4k with the current upgraded Ps/Xbox systems), but just saying how much does it really matter at this point. Sure I like seeing prettier versions of the same game, but we're past the point where it makes a difference to the quality of the game for the vast majority of games.

Like at this point, I look at Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn and I think to myself I can't wait for a Zelda game on next gen Nintendo to have the graphical fidelity of Horizon ZD because having that level of detail in the environment would greatly increase the feeling of the world being alive and full, but then a jump from that graphical level to say PS5 level doesn't excite me in the same way at all. Sure it'd be cripser moving up to 4k and textures would be more detailed, but look at what Horizon ZD already looks like...improving graphics beyond that is gonna fall into the "oh cool its a little be prettier" category and that's it.

I look at the Star Citizen video on the second page of this thread and I think okay yeah that looks better but a current gen version of that would be the exact same game just a bit less crisp and slightly less detailed to the point where it wouldn't make a difference. Or I look at the low res FF7 remake texture pics from the first page of this thread and think to myself: "really?! this is what people care about now, nitpicking around looking for any resolutions in a game that aren't super high rez? Who cares?! How does this in anyway affect your enjoyment of the game if you have to go searching for a non-high-rez texture here and there just to prove a point that the graphics aren't perfect?!"

I grabbed an Xbox One X and a PS4 Pro because I'm easily manipulated but, to be honest, I'm happy with Xbox 360/PS3 level performance.

I play a game like Resident Evil 3 on my Xbox One X in my game room in 4K and then go to my bedroom and play it on my 2014 XBO in 1080p (or whatever) and it's pretty seamless. I don't see much, if any downgrade or improvement. We're there...but then again, like the OP, I never imagined things would get better than Resident Evil 4 on GameCube. 🙄

I'll probably buy both next gen systems early on despite the fact that I barely play what I already have. But when I need Digital Foundry to zoom in 4x to point out a detail i have to pause the screen to even notice side by side, I don't know if it's worth it anymore.

I actually don't want to see any devs going much further beyond what we've already seen. I'd just like the current level of graphical fidelity to be executed flawlessly.

No noticeable Texture/asset pop-in
Seamless Loading
Stable performance at 4k with 60fps as the new minimum

EDITED

I'm mean this feels more next gen then any next gen gameplay we've officially been shown. 

Oh man that is a good way to put it. That pretty much hits it on the head. Take a current gen game and raise the settings and you get a next gen game.

Even the leap from last gen to this gen, while more noticeable and perhaps a bit more than just "low settings to high settings" isn't so great that now you look back at PS3 games and think they look bad compared to PS4 games. They still look great just a bit less so. It's not like going from the pixelated glitchy jagged mess that was PS1 to the vastly improved PS2, or PS2 to HD PS3. Those were large leaps, though obviously less so for the latter transition but the jump to HD made it feel bigger. PS3 to PS4 was a bit less than PS2 to PS3 but also you didn't even get the huge resolution upgrade so it wasn't that big a difference. Without the jump from HD to 4k I think the next gen leap would be entirely unimpressive as far as generational leaps go, and even with it, as you say, it just seems like going from low settings to high settings, or even medium settings to high settings!

The generational leaps since 3D have basically been "very basic 3D" to "good 3D" to "really good HD" to "great HD" to next gen "slightly more great 4k". The 3D generation leaps have gone from huge to big to decent to now next gen "turn the settings up."

Now I get why loading times are like such a big deal in next gen systems, because other than the jump to 4k (which Pro and X owners already experienced) the graphical upgrade isn't that big so something like load times becomes a major differentiating factor in the generations. Ray tracing seems to be like THE BIG DEAL for the next gen. Watching videos of ray tracing it IS really cool looking, but again, in terms of upgrading how games can be made and played it doesn't really do anything, it's just a "oh that looks cool" feature and considering that seems to be the major upgrade people are excited about it is underwhelming for a whole generational leap. Reminds me more of the intra-generational leaps during the SNES like getting the FX chip or Rare digging into the system to be able to produce DKC graphics.

At this point its gonna be a full decade before there is even any graphical reason for the next-next-gen to come out. Makes me think Nintendo is ahead of the curve here with the Switch because after the next gen it would seem to me that the only real way to show tech progress would be to miniaturize it with slightly better tech after a decade into a hybrid form so people can play whenever and wherever. As graphical power has already stopped making much of a difference between generations, Nintendo's current strategy of play anywhere I think is the next logical step for the advancement of gaming.

And since for years to come next gen games will likely also be released on current gen systems, but with high settings turned down to medium settings it feels like there is less reason to buy a next gen system at this point, not saying people won't because most people like the to get "the new thing", but just saying there won't be much difference between playing current gen games and next gen games.

Feels like we should wait till we see the real next gen games before passing any judgment instead of basing it off cross gen games which are mainly meant to run on current gen systems...

Yeah actual realtime raytracing for the average game is not going to happen on the PS5/Xbox Series X. The RT you see will just going to be added on top of normal render. Not so impressive.. unless you really want to play some Minecraft.

PS6/Xbox S2 will be bigger leap from gen 9.

At bold .. most those have a lot to do with graphics especially animation xP Maybe not AI

I pretty much predicted that the upcoming generation would be similar to the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox generation in that the leap would not be as big as the generation before it; rather, an incremental upgrade and optimization over the previous generation. Part of the issue here is that instead of Sony and Microsoft waiting until the next generation to release 4K capable consoles, they upgraded their current generation consoles. This now makes the leap to the next generation seem even smaller than the leap from the Playstation to Playstation 2. People argued with me on this point. But the truth is, if both companies had waited until the launch of these consoles to touch the 4K market, we would all be wowed by the graphical leap. However, since we have already seen 4K graphics for a few years now, this leap feels inadequate.

I think for practical purposes PS4 tier visuals are good enough approximation of photorealism that any reasonably talented art staff can make a beautiful looking game.

Like FF7 Remake or Last of Us 2 would be considered basically CGI movie quality or better from 15 years ago.

With the exception of ray traced lighting, basically PS5/XBSX should be able to provide what was CG quality and really honestly even then, pre-baked lighting if done skillfully is no slouch.

That said ultimately it's about the game and if a developer says they need that much horsepower to achieve their vision, so be it.