Doesn't the PS4 Slim still outsell the Pro (at least it does in Japan)? Most consumers are price conscious so there will need to be a solution for them.
This isn't really accurate.
The console user base is made up of a lot of different consumers- some price sensitive, some not so much. An intelligent marketing strategy tries to hit all of them.
At launch you target your hardcore and core consumers. These are your users who are not price sensitive- it makes sense to do so since manufacturing costs are still high, and there aren't really many games exclusive to the platform. These are people who like having the latest and greatest and buy on potential. These users also buy the largest amount of accessories, games, and sign up for things like PS+.
Over time, you try appeal to a different set of consumers. These are more price sensitive and take into account value to cost. For instance, these might be people that own a current generation console but won't switch until a certain franchise shows up, or a certain amount of compelling software is available. Most of your users are probably in this boat, but even at launch most of them wouldn't buy in because the software simply isn't there to make the cost/value proposition make sense.
Bringing up the rear are your price sensitive buyers- they won't buy anything if it's over a certain price threshold- that might be $199, might be $99, whatever it is, they're locked into "cost" no matter what the value proposition of the system is. Your "slim" versions of the system are usually an attempt to reduce cost to a level where appealing to these buyers makes financial sense. These buyers also buy relatively few games, or only buy things that are heavily discounted.
At launch, trying to price a system to appeal to the latter two of these categories is bad business. There's a limit to the amount of systems that can be produced and shipped in a given year- you want those going to your most profitable users. If hypothetically sony DID release a PS5 at $199, they wouldn't sell any more units than they would at $499. Either way they'd sell out, but in the case of the former a lot of those buyers would be people who don't buy a lot of games, don't buy accessories like extra controllers or PSVR, and don't sign up for PS+.
It's a money losing proposition. You want to target those consumers EVENTUALLY, but not at launch when profitability is crucial.
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