Most of the physical games mean nothing on consoles.
With day one patches etc. a lot of the physical discs are useless and are there for just having a license.
I own all of the current console (PS5 Disc, Xbox Series X, Switch and Gaming PC with RX 6900 XT) and mainly play on Xbox. It is a fact, if you have a lower installbase, small games will not be released on that said console. Bigger installbase can reach more people. With a small dev team, which one would you prefer? Look at games like Binding of Isaac for example. The devs simply didnt care about Xbox, got the DLC months later etc. Even something like Rocket League debuted on PS4 first and after a year or so Xbox got it too.
Exclusives and the eco system are one of the reason to choose a console or system over another one
1: the games itself are mostly cheaper on Pyc than on consoles, in the long term this could be in favour for PC gamers
2: depends on the consumer: want the best version? PC, want to play early or want a cheap entry into the ecosystem? Console
Of course they will "always" exist, but look at the current consoles. Currently we just have "custom" PC hardware with "custom" OS. The time where consoles were something special in hardware terms is long gone IMO
Steam alone is enough for Couch PC games.
Evem the third party launchers are moving back to Steam again.
Steam and PC MS Store can be used with controllers.
Even beeing able to play all of the old games
FU