Now let me start by saying that I don't own either of these consoles. I've never even played either of them yet, though I do know of a few people in my life that have them.

But some of the hardware shortages, missing features/hiccups, and even the high amount of cross-gen games make me think Sony and Microsoft should've just delayed these consoles.

Now, I know what you'll say. It had been 7 years since the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One. And it was high time to get new consoles and of course they should launch in November 2020. Normally, I'd agree. But the world is experiencing its worst pandemic in a century. The last time we had a pandemic that affected the world on this scale was the 1918 influenza outbreak. That's several decades before even the most primitive of video games were invented. And this of course has caused many issues, including electronic part shortages. 

I'm only bringing up the current pandemic for context. I am not making this thread to debate the pandemic through political or other discourse. So let's leave it there.

So when should they have launched the consoles? No later than November 2021, but even that might be too long. I know they wanted to hit that sweet November release date, but delaying the consoles a full year is a pretty drastic measure. 

March 2021 so they release before the fiscal year ends? I still think that would've been too soon to release the hardware.

My proposition would be June 2021. The release dates would be either the week before E3 or the week after.

Both consoles would have more stock available, more launch software (including more next-gen experiences) and more problems ironed out.

I think certain cross-gen games that launched last year with the new consoles could still launch with them. However, they would also get PS4 and Xbox One versions in the original November release in this alternate timeline.

Example: Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales launches as a PS4 exclusive in November 2020. The PS5 version is a launch title for the PS5 when it launches in June 2021.

This extra time would also allow Sony and Microsoft to make more PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Now they wouldn't make crazy amounts of them, since most resources would go toward making the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. But they could maybe manufacture a million more or so of the eighth gen consoles so that people can buy them before the new consoles launch. I mean these old consoles are still selling right now despite the fact that hardware production on them is crawling to a halt (but still happening) and successors are released.

Feel free to disagree or agree with me in your replies.

Despite the shortages, PS5 & XSX are slightly outpacing their predecessors in the same timeframe though (they also cost more than their predecessors). I understand your points, but so far it feels like the Nov 2020 release dates benefited the companies.

Maybe the Series X/S, but the PS5 had the strongest launch line up of games in Playstation history (and one of the best launch lineups in general), one if not the most innovative controller of all time, and the PS5 is still out pacing the PS4 despite the semiconductor shortage, and that's with a higher price and launching in more regions like China in it's first year. Sony was more than prepared for a 2020 launch despite a global pandemic.

A delay would only benefit Microsoft tbh.

No way. There isn't any lack of stock. They are moving more consoles than ever before. There is mismatch of supply and demand, but that just prevented them from doing even better, and was in large part due to COVID trend to online sales being more easily gamed by scammers, which doesn't even disturb real supply/demand in long term it just diverts it into scalping profits. Expecting Sony/MS to stockpile EVEN MORE consoles to have on hand before launch is absurd, they already had more than any other launch, that just wasn't a problem and they both have contracts putting them in good position VS every other customer of AMD amidst semiconductor draught. Otherwise COVID has been good for gaming and not a reason to delay anything. If anything a delay would mean launch happening after COVID lockdowns are over and people wanting to do stuff outside and socialize instead of gaming at home, which wouldn't be helpful for console launch. Sony's launch exclusives have been fine, and expecting more nextgen exclusives is again going against precedent where everybody knows to expect cross-gen for first several years, and even if there was a full year or more delay in launch that wouldn't change anything in that regard. Overall I feel the OP's post suffers flaw of just cherry picking whatever seems to gratify it's assumptions rather than actually trying to find tough counterpoints that argue otherwise. Doing so only increases the quality of engagement and increases your credibility, so EDIT: I think they would also find it more rewarding.

I don't know much about the controller, but what exactly makes it so innovative?

Sony is fine, 8.8 million sold in 6ish months is solid, and the best launch lineup they have ever had with Ratchet and Clank coming only 6 months into the systems launch. Once Halo got delayed, Microsoft probably could have pushed it off to March 2021 similar to the Switch, but they have sold every console they have made so its looking like they made the right decision.

It wouldn't have changed much. The consoles were planned long enough before the pandemic and the shortage that designs were pretty final. They would have launched with more stock in the beginning, but the units shipped till now would be the same. There still would be a shortage.
Also, I think the launch situation for both consoles is pretty good considering the launch of their predecessors. The lack of stock is the biggest problem and in a year or two multigeneration games will slowly fizzle out as they have during the previous generation switch.

Lineup =/= window, and even then 8 months after launch... idk if you can consider that part of the window lol

I agree it's one of the better playstation launches with Demon Souls, Miles, and Sackboy tho.

PS4 had Killzone and Knack

PS3 had Genji and Untold Legends EDIT:Forgot Resistance 

And compared to Xbox Series which only had Gears Tactics after Infinite's delay, it looks damn strong.

I dont know. I think them launching with several great games would make it just as hard to get then.

The adaptive triggers.
Otherwise it's a a refinement of every other controller that has come before it.

Definitely not as innovative as the Wii, Kinect, Move, NES, Original Dual Shock and so on.