According to this:
"The new findings are very interesting as Sparkman and Arden have ray tracing and variable rate shading mentioned, while Oberon and Ariel
don't. If they are indeed related to the PlayStation 5 console, this means that Sony will not be using AMD technology for ray tracing and variable rate shading."
According to a recent leak, the PlayStation 5 may be using another hardware solution for ray tracing and variable rate shading
wccftech.com
If Sony did shoehorn RT support because they had their pick of selections of RDNA2 features they can add on without increasing the complexity and price. But didn't pick Mesh shaders and VRS for some reason. Then OP would be right.
Why I don't hold any belief either way. It is interesting that they marketed RDNA 1 (Primitive Shaders, Geometry Engine) features rather than RDNA 2 features (Mesh shaders, VRS). Again I don't believe it but its an interesting thought process.