Broski this isn't about PR, there's no money in "Nice Guy Microsoft" when it comes to the Xbox One at this point, look at this in context with the recent talk about Xbox being a W10 platform, all the W10 discussion at GDC, "maybe no future Xbox", Xbox revisions, closing studios, exclusives coming to PC etc.
It's all part of Xbox becoming some kind of monetisation model for PC gaming. In that world, Microsoft aren't competing with Sony, the PS4 is just another platform to provide it's services on, hence moves like this.
Microsoft. Is. Leaving. Traditional. Console. Gaming.
I'm really starting to wonder when the penny is gonna drop for some people here but I suppose emotional attachment to the idea of Microsoft being part of the "console war" is too strong for them.
MS is staying in the console market. Even if their next box shares an ecosystem with win10 PC, it will still target console gamers. They'll still want that walled garden where they can offer subscription services and collect licensing on all software sold. They can't have that on PC.
When you take a dedicated gaming PC, with a fixed hardware configuration, and close it down so it only has access to the 1st party marketplace, you have a console.