lets fight!
When was the last time a competitor "won" the platform wars with exclusives over the market leader?
The argument always comes to the forefront either because of list wars or a general dislike of Exclusives (EGS vs Steam)
The question is: Are Exclusives really the path to success?
Of course, there will be many people saying they only bought the system because of game x or z (me included), and others will vehemently defend the Exclusive narrative because of a hundred different reasons.
First of all: how are we defining success because of Exclusives? Did a market leader really win the generation because of Exclusives or because it had momentum from the previous generation?
Are there any instances where an underdog/competitor took the crown from the current market leader because of Exclusives? I can only think of one example, and that is 3 decades old: PlayStation 1.
The PlayStation 2 won as a previous market leader.
Did the Wii win because of Exclusives? or more realistically because of the hardware/motion controls?
did the 360 "nearly" won second place (and "nearly won in the US, can't remember if PS3 overtook it in the end) because of Exclusives or because of hardware (kinect)
The WiiU, coming as a market leader didn't win anything, exclusives didn't even matter.
The PS4 ... is a special case (you are just trying to fit it into your narrative!!!) No, hear me out, please. Is the Switch considered current gen (PS4/XBO) or next gen (PS5/XBS)? For all intents and purposes, the WiiU was the first release of the generation of PS4 and XBO. The PS4 would have handily won, so handily, that the argument it was because of Exclusives is moot, because the generation had such a massive decline in console sales across the big 3, that you can't pinpoint it on the strength of the Playstation brand and exclusives, but rather because of the massive fuck-ups of the competition. If the Switch counts as belonging to the PS4/XBO generation, then the generation isn't over yet, the Switch is currently predicted to outsell the PS4.
And if the Switch wins current gen or next gen, doesn't matter, it won because of Hardware and not because of Exclusives. (unless someone wants to argue that the Nintendo output of the WiiU era was 10 to 15 times in quality than the Wii or Switch era)
All in all, Exclusives can only support the status quo, there are more examples of consoles losing or winning the generation because of hardware than of Exclusives.
And the sales support that. Overall, the console market is shrinking, doesn't even matter if you include or exclude handhelds. The switch is both, and its inclusion with all handhelds, or its exclusion with all handhelds will still be a decline in overall sales.
(Image only begins with the PS360WII Generation)