Exactly, you get what you pay for. If you are playing on a 1080p monitor or a 1440p monitor, it’s a good option. Which is why a lot of people with XSS seem to play on theirs desks… It’s not the best bang for the buck in terms of tech, it’s simply the least expensive option, that’s the trade off.
But I can buy a 49’ 4K tv for less that 400$, and 4K TVs dominate the sales. For anybody who had a 4K TV and is coming from a X1X, a last gen console, it’s a downgrade in terms of picture quality, and that’s just a fact. It’s not just the resolution, as seen by Metro, other graphical settings take a hit too, so it’s not even the linear resolution adjustment that was promised pre release when compared to other options.
If MS launched an XBSX DE and matched the PS5DE, the SS would be terrible value for somebody who wanted an Xbox, so really its value is highly debatable. 512GB for storage, as soon as you upgrade the storage the value proposition is dead.
Cheaper does not mean higher value, it just means lower barrier to entry. And there’s nothing impressive about it technology wise, because it’s just a cut back version of another console, it’s not doing anything different.