I dont think the SSDs are going to be massively different in price either, maybe $20-$30, which isnt much. There were alot of people saying that the XSX was going to be $100 more expensive due to the extra power, which in reality when you look into it you see in no world is there going to be $100 price difference. I expect their BOMs to be around the same, maybe one $20-$30 more, which really puts them at the same price point.Nearly 200gb of extra nand flash is not just nothing either. In total, i don't think their SSD solutions will be that far off. We don't have the exact details either of what rated controller MS is using, the theoretical max transfer rate of their controller might be higher then the claimed one.
In the end it's all personal tastes. I do like MS departing from the traditional console designs we have had for ages, it enabled them to pack more power/cooling into the console landscape. It's a tower form, but smaller then almost any SFF pc build i have seen, with regards to the kind of hardware that's in there.
In a traditional console form/design, it won't only look hotter. Don't be surprised if also Sony is going with something more exotic then before to allow for better cooling of the components in there.
Personally i don't really care so much how they look, its how they perform and how audible they are that go way before that
I also see alot of people claiming Sony can afford to discount the PS5 more than MS can, because the PlayStation makes more money than the Xbox does. They don't understand that MS literally has the same amount as Sony's entire profit for the last 20 years sitting in their cash reserves at the bank, nor that PlayStation is one of Sony's only money making divisions, and that profit is needed by Sony.
If anyone can afford to discount their console, it's MS.