From my understanding, you are saying

 Sony is considered the best in HD consoles, yet they have a disclaimer that says you don't get a free cable.

I put it to you that MS is considered best in online yet they disclaim that you need to buy the online stuff seperate.

My question is, why can MS get away with the online stuff yet Sony can't with the cable?

but you don't have to play it in HD...exactly the same way you don't have to go online.
Way some people make the HD point is that you can only play the ps3 in HD and as if it hampers the way you play your games by restricting features...apart from how things look...it doesn't

Whereas online...it kind of does for example. (I don't know 360 games that well so I'll use a ps3 game as an example)

I play warhawk which is effectively 100% online, granted you get a free cable for that however it's useless if the access point is in another room (which co-incidentally, mine is) which means you will have to get the adapter sperately thus restricting features.

Less we forget, HDMI cables aren't exactly gonna cost you an arm and a leg (I think the console already did that :D) so an extra what 5-10 bucks shouldn't be the end of the world...

Whereas a compulsary network adapter will cost considerably more.

In conclusion...no company's perfect.

Ah so you mean Microsoft when you buy all necessary accesories and fees :D

In that case none of them were OVER $600

The Black one.

EDIT: Damn... PSRock beat me to it...