Does GAF think it was Starfield that triggered this or could they have made their minds up before?
I wouldn't say it's entirely responsible, but it didn't help.
They probably thought the Bethesda purchase would push them forward and in reality it pushed them backwards in the console space and isn't even close to what Skyrim was on Steam.
Overall, they have spent over 80 Billion in the last few years and lost ground to Playstation, while having the most inexpensive console and giving away their games for free day 1 on a subscription. Really think about that.
This is the only viable way forward.
Competing with Steam is more of an uphill battle than competing with PlayStation and Nintendo is doing their own thing and Xbox can't do what they do.
It makes more sense to release with everyone that has their individual markets cornered at this point.