Okay; first off, without knowing what the content and pricing is for stadia, its pretty pointless speculating too much, because ultimately -
as with every other gaming system ever made - thats what will be the major driver of adoption.
Technical stuff
doesn't matter to a mass majority.
It really doesn't.
People listen to 128Kbps MP3s on some Beats By Dre headphones over a bluetooth connection to their phone.
They watch over the air 720p broadcasts on their 4K TVs.
They play games with Game Mode enabled on their TV with wireless controllers, and wouldn't notice input lag even if you have a whole setup mode specifically addressing it in Guitar Hero.
This isn't an elitist 'lol, normies' observation. Its just the fact of the matter that enthusiasts care about shit that casual partakers really don't.
Sony and MS are MASSIVELY successful at what they are doing, and they are making a ton of money for the people who produce videogames. What in the world did they "fuck up" exactly?
are they though?
the games industry in the 'core gamer' space is... not doing as great as you seem to think it is.
Publishers aren't making moves that piss off the vocal #realgamers because they think its funny to piss them off, or because they're sooooo greedy they can't help themselves.
The user experience for a modern console is fucking
shit. If you've become accustomed to it because its ramped up slowly, that doesn't stop that being the case for someone who hasn't.
The quintessential console experience was; cheap box, under TV, stick game in, play. Simple, idiot proof.
Now? Buy your expensive box (built in obsolescence of 2 years), create username and password, sign into services, put game in, wait what can be as long as an hour for files to copy over, connect to online services, download patch, install patch, restart game, sign in, get upsold to an online pass to play online, finally get to play actual game.
Its a fucking chore.
If the promise of click play on trailer -> play the fucking game immediately is even half met, thats an ease and simplicity of experience that Sony & MS long since abandoned.