Could've been dev pressure, could be that they saw the sentiment online, pre or post Scorpio. I think it was mostly the latter, but probably a mix in the end. Apparently some first party devs wanted more memory.
Well, unless something has really changed, I haven't seen any circumstantial evidence of clock increases since the developer leak for Neo. From all understandings that I have so far, the wishful thinking seems to be around the fact that Neo dimensions are larger and heavier than expected; compared to what I'm unsure. Somehow this leaked information is driving the idea of higher clocks relating to more cooling. Just want to point out something who feels this way: 853Mhz is not a rounded number. Just like how 911Mhz is not either; on the contrary they're quite specific. XBO has a overly massive cooler, and they haven't moved clock speeds since launch. Yes it's true Slim moved it up, but it was for the inclusion of HDR. I think it's justified in that way.
Scorpio isn't really a threat to Sony, but 5.5TF vs 6 or 7 doesn't look as bad as 4.2 vs 6. MS still has to come in around $500 next year after all so I dont see them hitting 8TF or anything like that.
Which I believe myself, and I don't think you'd get a lot of disagreement; that the comment you've written is really: Scorpio isn't a threat to Sony, but a higher clock speed is a nice to have. And I think we've discussed this a bit here and there, but if you are Sony loyal with a huge PS4 library, you aren't going to dump everything and go to Xbox because it's got more horsepower. And the idea of moving your library along is so strong of a locking mechanism it's hard to believe that Scorpio would have that big of an impact to Sony when you consider their substantial lead with PS4. So why juice up the Neo just because Scorpio is around? Likewise on this thought process I can get into why MS announced Scorpio so far in advance further below.
And that's all that's really for debate here, it's just a nice to have. A well priced Neo, with good characteristics (which includes low thermal footprint, low TDP, 4K HDR output etc, and high performance for a good price) is probably the ideal piece of hardware for everyone. Once you start bringing the concept of tuning it higher and higher, it's going to start losing a lot of these characteristics, price point as well.
I'm not going to pretend i understand the strategy of Neo and Scorpio, they are both new devices in their respective launches, but this is my thought process behind them.
a) tap into the customer mentality that people always like the freshest and best hardware
b) by doing this you keep your customers locked into the hardware ecosystem, and continue to lock customers into services and software (where the profit is)
c) by releasing these mid generation devices, we have yet another opportunity of capturing loyalists of competing platforms. Xbox Owners that always wanted to try PS4 can now get a Neo and play with their PS4 friends and vice versa for PS4 and Scorpio.
if these are the main goals for Sony, it would make sense why MS would announce a 6 TF Scorpio well before they are even ready to lock down hardware spec; the last thing MS wants are for Xbox Owners to pick up a Neo and continue their library there and playing with their PS4 friends. That's a major threat to MS. So what better way to stop that behaviour than to announce a carry on library and accessories on a even more powerful Xbox Console on the largest stage of gaming news. Seems to me like a fear reaction on MS, it also put Sony in a weird position they didn't expect to be in, at least from an announcement perspective. But I don't see that as a need for Sony to react.
They are indeed ahead on delivering the hardware, and they should be on price. Never discount what a good piece of hardware can do. People need to get around the whole horsepower mentality. It's not everything consoles are about.
And if for some reason Neo does turn out to be 5.5 TF. Well then I guess we need to stop saying that power isn't everything Mantra. haha because perhaps it is.