I think the argument is simply that Sony's exclusives have a lot more hype and buzz around them, and sales would indicate that is entirely true.
I signed up for 3 years of Gamepass, but I honestly see the service as a sort of acknowledgement by Microsoft that things weren't going great the traditional route for them, so they decided to try something entirely different. The aggressive pricing deals we've seen indicate even more that Gamepass likely hasn't been doing great so far, so again they've changed up their strategy.
For me Gamepass will almost certainly push me to buy a next gen Xbox sooner rather than later, but I don't think Gamepass has really gotten much traction in the gaming consciousness so far. I think Microsoft is ultimately going to have to have some very positively hailed exclusives to pull the masses back into their world. Games that arrive with the impact of God of War or Spider-Man did last year. Right now I have absolutely no idea what game that will be, but I guess Halo Infinite at launch next year is a good start.
