Not sure I agree the premise of the article. Sales are going to be down when there are fewer AAA releases to drive hardware sales. It's taking longer and longer to develop those games and the budget required no longer justifies console exclusivity.
I think 2025 will be the real measure of console strength when the big releases are scheduled to come out.
$666 without kb/mouse/monitor/os. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vjVNbL
You're right in that over the long term, a PC gamer will probably end up spending less on their hobby. But for someone starting from scratch and trying to decide on a path, the console remains the cheaper and easier platform to jump into.
I don't see where I mentioned optimization but I am curious and maybe you can elaborate further on what I'm guessing are probably the differences between game patch optimizations vs driver level optimizations?