This is assuming the price of the X will drop down to match the price of the S, as a full replacement.

Nah, I don't want to use a USB port for that, nor have an external HDD on top or beside / behind the console. Plus copying from HDD back to SSD takes long as well, might as well install from disk. And I hate trying to find something in a menu, while I can pick out the game I want blindfolded from the shelf. I deleted a game so it could patch the others, problem solved. The PS5 only lists a couple games on the menu bar (can't find how to make it work like ps4, maybe you can't yet?) so no point installing more or it's having to browse the game library again.

(I hope you meant TB :p)

For me the PS5 is showing like 8 or 10 games on the main menu (plus the library of course) every game recently installed or open seems to be show on the main.

Yep from what we know seems like PS5 discless is 10-20% of total sales and since it is also sold out seems like Sony just put those to say the price starts at 400 to counter whatever MS was doing and not hear much complain from fanbase, they really like to sell the one with disc that is already profitable on the HW.

Yep, plus some other things like the capture gallery. On PS4 you could set it to show all and use folders as well.

Good thing about discs is, the inserted disc game is always at the front. Plus I have more of a visual memory. I often can't remember the name of a game but have no problem finding it on my shelves. I often have to look at my game shelf to remember what a certain game was called. Turning the console / tv on to browse a 2D grid takes so much longer.

I don`t play many games at once so I wouldn't have the same issue you are facing (I don't even use the folders, and usually I remember the name of the games I want to play), but yes physical makes it easier sometimes and the folders helps as well.

Kids.... They want to play their games. My youngest plays Sackboy, Lego Dimensions and Overcooked. My oldest is still into Ghost of Tsushima, Ark and has erm can't think of the name lol. I call it storage wars, plays it with his friend collecting stuff, build a shack to defend the stuff, server resets every month. And my wife is playing Ratchet and Clank. I'm playing GT Sport and atm Tlou2. It fills up fast and digital games tend to hang around (Wreckfest, Oddworld, Plaguetale on it as well)

BC is a hindrance! :p

Gotcha, yes multiple users even more kids that hop around several games can eat up your SDD.

And Phil Spencer and others at Microsoft have said that one of the reasons they did the Series S was because they don't expect significant price drops this generation.

That said, despite credible rumours that it's being considered, I personally don't think the gap needs to be filled between the Series S and the X.  A smaller (and disc-less) X makes sense to me, even though it probably won't be a lot cheaper (optical drives aren't THAT expensive these days, are they?).  I think losing the optical drive would do more for size reduction than it would cost reduction.  And size reduction is valuable, Microsoft already has an advantage over Sony in that regard this gen, and it makes sense to press that advantage.  That and it would push up digital sales definitely, and Game Pass attach rate probably.

Heh, yes, I meant TB, not GB!  Good catch!  :)

Fair enough if you don't prefer an external drive plugged in.  But copying from an external drive back to the SDD would be vastly faster on average than re-installing from disc, and the older the game gets the bigger the advantage of copying from an external drive becomes.  On the external drive it can (optionally) keep the game up to date as patches come out.  Whereas re-installing from disc will trigger a growing cascade of patches and other updates as the game gets older.  Hell, there are AAA games that have a single GB on the disc, almost all of the game has to be installed from the cloud even if you have the disc.  And that's BEFORE content updates and any patches enter the picture.

Whereas moving an average AAA tile from a USB SSD might take 8-ish minutes, and from a USB HDD might take 20-ish minutes.  Even if you have Gigabit internet or better, installing from disc would likely take far longer due to the downloads required.

It does occur to me that the external drive doesn't need to be plugged in all the time, either.  You can copy to it, and unplug it when you're done.  You can later copy back from it, and again unplug it when you're done.  Most systems have both front and rear USB ports these days.  If you only plug the USB drive in when you're copying a game back or forth, it's not a lot different than hunting down the disc and putting it in the drive.  Other than you'd probably wait longer if installing it from disc, on average.

To each their own, everyone has different preferences, and I prefer the advantages of selecting from the (virtual) fronts of boxes for digital games over the spines of physical game boxes.  And I'm on a Series S so I can't speak to how the PS5 organizes digital games.  But I can say that copying back from an external drive is going to be objectively faster, on average.