Furthermore, almost all the games I played on PS5 were PS4 games that now ran butter smooth.
The idea of a graphics vs performance mode feels like they needed to push the PS5 too hard to make the graphics good enough to justify a new console, but realistically, the hardware can't handle it.
The sales pitch of the PS5 Pro is that the choice no longer has to be made, which is how it should always be with a console, imo. If people want to tweak and tune to make their personal tradeoffs between graphics and speed, that always seemed like what the PC was for.
I was looking at getting a PS5 slim, but heart the Pro rumors, so I waited. After seeing the graphics vs performance toggle, I don't want the slim, but looking at the comparisons, I don't see enough of a difference in graphics where I want to pay more for the Pro... so I think I'm likely going to skip it all together, at least for now. Things might change when GTA6 comes out. That could make the choice more clear.
They always carefully decide on defaults too, so you can simply pretend those options don’t exist.
I know I'm in the minority and a lot of people prefer the choice, but when a game is offering three or four different fidelity/performance modes (not uncommon now raytracing is a factor), I get decision paralysis and worry about whether I'm getting the optimal experience. I'd like a "developer recommended" option that they feel best matches their creative vision.