Isn't this the rule for all console generations? If it were easy, it would be pointless to have newer hardware, wouldn't it? That was the problem during the early PS4/XBOne days, every game came to the newer gen and the old PS360 pairs, so many complained about the point of the new hardware.

Aside from Halo and Grounded I don’t see MS doing their own policy much end of day.

I don’t get your angle, I mean I do but it’s a weird approach. Clearly you driving the point that Xbox is in the wrong for doing cross gen games. But your last sentence acknowledges they aren’t doing it in practice for the most part. Lol can’t win.

Isn't PS3 the cell nightmare machine? Wasn't PS4 a giant leap in the right architectural direction, especially when it came to BC? How can scaling back x86 PS5 to x86 PS4 be anything close to scaling back/porting x86 PS4 to cell PS3?

Well sure, supporting more platforms costs money and generally is annoying.... but if you've built a decent game engine it's no different to supporting different powered PCs.

Well they run on a tablet CPU, what did you expect?

If a game developed on next gen first just uses next gen higher GPU power, that's the only case in which scaling dow is reasonably easy.
If the game NEEDS or heavily relies on next gen larger main RAM and/or higher CPU power, port can become very hard or impossible or requiring a radical rewriting.
If the games makes heavy use of next gen SSD, port can still be possible, but without some rewriting it will be gimped.
The easiest way is developing on current gen first and scaling up on next gen consoles, the downside is that next gen versions will just use a subset of new HW power and offer just minor cosmetic improvements, but possibly also a really good improvement in frame rate.
Without external pressures, many devs will be tempted by the most radical choice, but publishers will push for the one that will give maximum total sales, unless console makers moneyhat them to give up current gen and make full use of next gen capabilities.

Not my point. My point is that, if you can scale it down without losing anything major, the game was feasible on the older hardware. And if it was possible in the older hardware, what' the point of the new console? The first year of PS4/XBOne was plagued by crossgen releases and remasters, it took a while for propper 8th gen games to appear.

the gap of ps3 to ps4 is much worse compared to ps4 to ps5 though right?

Never was a fan of this cross gen stuff. Sure the games don't LOOK like a huge jump due to diminishing returns, but that does not mean the PS4 and X1 will be able to handle games where this next gen leap counts. AI, physiscs, scale, post processing effects, and gernally new options in how the gameplay is portrayed. It is less about looking better (still a part though) and more about an advancement of possibilities within the games themselves.

But you told us keeping Xbox One in the loop wouldn't be just a transition period for games already years in development. Because GamePass.

You doubted Microsoft and their partners would let the Xbox One go after the 1 - 2 years transition period.