I do think it's layoff related because for a couple of years now they've been stripping their support staff. Last year I had a controller issue and needed to start a repair process and just to get a hold of a human was a saga worthy of the greatest explorer tales. It makes sense that this would extend to developer support too, they're also saying how it's impossible to get a hold of anyone over there. MS' obsession with AI is probably leaning in to them firing everyone in support too.I doubt its even about the layoffs anymore. They are probably not making much money hosting/selling indie games. If anything they are in the red with how much $$$ they hand out to get big titles on Gamepass. Everything outside of GP is probably pushing them into the "not giving a shit" territory. And this probably bleeds down to support + other dev issues.
Deck has a massive advantage in that it doesn't matter how bad a game runs on it there's no obligation to run things and it's something everyone sort of agrees on. Like wukong does not really run on deck, it launches but it's not playable in any acceptable state it has to run at like 480p and 20fps on ultra low lol. Series S has the same expectations X does despite being massively weaker and MS enforces parity between them which is why all these devs are in a bind. They can't skip S like they can with deck without skipping xbox altogether.It really is funny to see the Series S struggle so much lately when a stripped down handheld of that console (Deck) is able to trot along fine for now. There are a few exceptions here and there but the Deck is dominating in terms of support and shear quantity of indie/AA titles it can play today that the Series S can't and wont.