I understand what you're saying, I really hope the new Xbox is a flop at this point; but MS is giving the big publishers exactly what they want. I suspect they (the big publishers) will lean on Sony to do the same, and, since Sony has a history of dicking customers (go look at how expensive Vita memory cards are), I'm not holding out hope. While it seems completely logical that Sony would try to win points from consumers by not going mega ****** mode, I think they'll capitulate, if not now then soon.
Having an always on mic and camera (though is the camera always on, or just the mic?) is creepy as ****, especially if you buy one for your kids.
I really, really hope Valve pushes forward with some sort of Steam box. While you and I wouldn't need one, it could get a lot more people onto a more consumer friendly, and better platform. Though, I must say Valve has been walking a fine line lately, they have some pretty restrictive policies on some aspects of Steam, I'm not a fan of Greenlight, and generally hate free to play stuff. However, they nail content delivery and extra services, plus with regular and insane sales on software the positives outweigh the negatives.
Lets hope Valve doesn't turn into Activision or EA.