You are mainly consider the hardcore gamers, but I am saying those average consumers.
When they enter the shop to buy a console without knowing anything, what will be the question? Which is better for the same price? I bet most of store stuff will say PS4 and explain the advantage of the hardware and resolution of software on PS4. Even average consumer will not fully understand those shits, they will think "Yeah, PS4 is better and let me buy it."
I'm not. The very hardcore got up in arms about the DRM, despite websites and blogs saying that we should get over it and accept it. Then it hit twitter and facebook and people who are not hardcore gamers heard about it, realised that it was shitty too, and joined in. Even after MS did enough 180s to fix all of those issues there are people that won;t trust them, and refuse to buy an Xbox as a result.
Even then, those people and the people that buy a console in the first few months are the people that people who don't yet have one ask about it, and play on it. They influence those that come after the launch period.
I've said that power and resolution are playing a part, but the DRM mess isn't forgotten.
Price played a huge part, as did the DRM mess, the social campaigns and Sony's very basic angle of "don't goof".
Given that ESRAM is on the die, won't X1 be the far bigger beneficiary on the next die shrink (Xbox Slim or whatever)?
I doubt Samsung would be so generous on the GDDR contracts with Sony. After all, discrete GPU VRAM was somewhat stagnant so price/supply may be a thing.
That's provided the ESRAM can be shrunk to the next die shrink at the same time as the GPU. Though they are on the same die they are obviously different structures. Some things can be shrunk more easily than others.
As for the GDDR5, Sony are I think the largest buyer for it and can pretty safely go to whomever and say we need x amount for the next x years. That kind of bulk must count for something.