To me it was the introduction of HDTV connectivity.

Because consoles before this generation simply do not have a way integrally to communicate with TVs we have today, requiring stuff like the OSSC or RetroTink to exist to smooth out that connection gap (since HDTVs trying to handle this themselves has been a grand failure).

But a PS3 or post-Xenon 360? One cable that still works now as it did back then. Without that aspect of being divided from today's tech it's hard to sell it to me as being "from the past".