PS5 GPU is just 18% less processing power than Xbox SX. IS not big , it's even smaller than PS4 to Xbox One (38 % different) or even Xbox One X to PS4 pro (42.8 %) . 

XBox SX has slightly tiny better advantage on GPU over PS5. 

Sure, and devs have been working on power discrepancy forever, still Sony doesn't need to damage control over it. Same as they didn't need to say they also would receive games on MS presentation, still MS needed to talk about the SSD being slower and that UE5 would run on XSX as well.

MS Still thinks their loss this gen was due to being weaker.

I really don't understand why LOD, or whatever UE5's equivalent of LOD is, can't just be used instead of putting in a ~2 second elevator ride.

That is because the exec don't really understand game development.

I still does not make it a better performer, from what we hear right now it actually seems to perform worse. CPU on the ps5 isn't handling decompression or audio either, so there goes that 100MHz multithread advantage.

That will be all up to console sales and which platform 3rd party developers will be targeting as the base platform. Sony's SSD doesn't just make games load faster, it's also there to make development much easier. If they still need to use tricks like elevator rides on the Series X version, that whole benefit of easier to develop for is kinda lost. We'll see but we already know UE5's core features were practically designed around Sony's SSD tech.

Personally I do think we're not going to see much difference in most 3rd party games, unless Series X sales really completely bomb. But Sony's exclusives should stand out quite a bit, though.

They won't.

Everyone can ignore this poorly thought out quote from the executive. a 2x difference in speed is not going to equate to elevator vs no elevator, it'll be level of detail and pop in. Just as the PS5's CPU/GPU shortfalls will not result in graphical features missing but lower resolution targets when the hardware is being stressed and less fps stability when the CPU is being stressed. 

We don't really know to be honest. I mean could that specific UE5 demo have run on Series X as well? I would've thought so, but after reading this quote from a MS exec, I'm starting to have my doubts. All we know for certain is that Sony has shown Spider man with zero loading times and we've seen State of Decay loading in 10 seconds. I also think Sony wouldn't have put so much effort in their SSD tech if it would just mean a bit less pop-in and load a couple of seconds faster. They practically build their whole console around it and are convinced it's the key to the next generation, which a lot of developers seem to be agreeing with.

It wouldn't surprise me if MS releases a mid-gen Series XXL with a faster SSD.

SoD2 loaded the entire game in 7 seconds with zero optimization done to increase the SSD benefit, it was simply the result of installing the game on the XSX SSD. Spider-Man was a tech demo of the game with no character. Not really an apple to apple comparison and not surprisingly you're incorrect on the time it took the XSX to load the game.

The SSD isn't just there for faster loading times, it's supposed to change core level design as we know it, get rid off elevator rides and make game development much easier. A MS exec has now literally said developers need to use "tricks" to overcome the gap in throughput on Series X. It simply means either both versions will still have elevator rides, or they'll have to make changes to the core level design on Series X if ps5 is being targeted as the base platform. Maybe nobody will notice the difference, maybe they will. That we don't know yet.

Both consoles have it strengths and weaknesses in specific areas and it will be up to developers which platform's strengths they'll prioritize. Like always, that's a simple matter of which one has the biggest install base and can potentially sell the biggest numbers. This gen we're seeing multiplatform games outsell 3 or 4:1 on ps4, so there's that. But I guess we'll see.