Your post made me mostly nod in agreement. Xbox Series X is definitely a third console to me. I dunno if I'll keep it long term, but it's been an interesting experience owning it. I prefer PS5 for AAA games and Switch for indies. I don't get as much value from gamepass as some.
An approximate conversion I've had several times on Xbox Party chat with people....
"press the button with the 3 squares on it"..."which one is that, ok... ok that didn't do what i need"... "sorry i meant 3 lines, press that button" "the lines one on the right?" "sorry, yes, it's the one on the right hand side near the face buttons with the lines"
This is talking to people who's primary platform is Xbox too. So your point on this aspect of the controller rings true for me. MS found a way to make it worse than a basic start/select, while the other 2 companies either improved on start/select (or at least didn't make it worse, or less intuitive)
Also agree that the controller is basic and meh next to the dualsense. Zero innovation, no gyro, no rechargeable battery, no haptics, no trigger tension, no touchpad, no mic, no speaker... and barely any cheaper... smacks of Microsoft cost cutting and doing the absolute bare minimum while Sony really try to bring the best they can as the 'default interface' no matter the cost.
Speaking of interface, PS5's is far from perfect but I went running back to it and appreciating it after I first got hit with that 1080p SDR green buggy, ugly thing on Series X versus the gorgeous 4k HDR morphing PS5 interface with it's soothing sounds that takes on the sights and sounds of the game you hover over. Since I got a giant OLED I notice this even more.
Xbox in comparison is - "where are my games" "why is this a big internet explorer mess of crap by default" "why do i get errors doing basic shit like launching a game"... several times I've had an error from launching from the home screen, and had to dig into my game library or whatever, and launch the game from there instead. Just weird shit. People will tell you to start using/pinning different "games/apps" and make the interface work better for your games... eh, friction, switch/PS simply do the basics things better.
Quick resume - I dunno, when we are loading games in 5 seconds anyway, when more and more games have deep multiplayer online integration which seems to "break" every time you try to resume it from quick resume (Halo Infinite, etc), it seems like a minor win. I have literally never been back on PS5, waiting for a game to load and thought "i wish i had quick resume", and I dunno what swathe of games people are playing that aren't either indy games that load instantly, or online games that break via quick resume... it's a really niche win over simply not having quick resume.
