Not in my opinion: if you read the article, it clearly says that Microsoft enforcing a level of quality for dated hardware leads to devs abolishing features that the hardware series S hardware won’t be able to support. They also can’t decide to not support the S unless they abandon the Xbox series X as well. It leads to lower quality games for everyone, not just series S owners.

I guess that’s debatable, depends on how you define what “it runs” means. PC gamers with dated hardware may be fine with playing on 1080p, while on the Xbox Microsoft might veto if it doesn’t run on 1440p and 30fps. Of course weaker hardware won’t run everything faster hardware can, you can’t just sprinkle infinite magic optimization dust on a game, there are simply limits what’s possible with weaker hardware, and once you’ve reached them you can’t just shout “enhance” like in CSI Miami.

I’m not trying to attack you, merely trying to understand why it wouldn’t be the same. You saying “are you saying the devs are stupid” isn’t a very good explanation.

See my answer to the comment you mention.

It may be due to Microsoft demanding certain minimum configurations: at the very least minimum resolution and minimum frame rate. On PC you can always go down to 240p and/or live with 10fps in very high density scenes. Microsoft can (and will) just say “no” if they try that on the Xbox S

The article doesn’t explicitly state it but heavily implies “the Xbox series S is too weak for modern titles”. The optimization is necessary because it’s weak as fuck. It’s very much the same as optimizing for a PC, with the additional constraint that they need to artificially dial down the experience on other consoles, too, due to contract stipulations that prevents them from “giving an edge” to a competing product. The problem is not that it’s different from optimizing for PC, the problem is that it’s “optimizing for a PC that is in principle too weak to handle the load”.

Ok eli5 how that’s not the same. If you had said “the Series Shit™ is weak sauce” I would have understood. But if that’s not the case, what stops the devs from turning the graphics dial all the way down to “washed out pixel mess” to accommodate the very much PC-like hardware. For which you don’t have to worry about players messing with the config because you simply don’t let them.

Not at all my experience, the miniscule amount of data needed for a text message goes over the shittiest of internet lines. Yes, SMS sometimes goes over a highly saturated network where data doesn’t because sms just yeets your data instead of establishing a proper connection with a handshake. Though that’s usually very unreliable as well. SMS is also terrible from a privacy perspective, as it is unencrypted and can be spoofed and read by anyone in between, and even read by third parties who just listen in on the wireless transmission. Look where you’re posting. “Cake” pfft

I’m improving my mental capabilities even right now

“Never hesitate to state the obvious”, for socially awkward teenager-me this was a game changer how to participate in conversation. I still live by it and it’s really useful in meetings, as it also brings real value to the conversation, as whatever is obvious to you isn’t necessarily obvious to others. And even if everyone knew, it may still spark a discussion.