>>717109830 (OP)>will gaming PCs ever be competitive in price with consolesThey've been the past 15 years.
If you're "fine" with average console performance of mere 720p, running at 30fps, that's then upscaled to """4K""" using post-processing filters + past-frame data...
then you can indeed make do with a DECADE old mid-tier build, which many elitists would be potentially gifting away for free.
Already back in 2011, /v/ had an endless line of "here's how to build a console killer PC" threads. The average price was 300-350 bucks, which was competitive all the way to ~2019 when Switch was the cheapest system and going for mere 299 dollars.
Even today, after all of the component scalping and extreme inflation, you can indeed grab a 2nd hand gaming PC for ~500 bucks, and get yourself a great system capable of NATIVE 1080p / 60fps (or more), with good upgrade options. Which already saves you A TON of money compared to the 600-700 dollar consoles (that cost extra in the Europe thanks to import taxes + VAT).
Not only that, but whenever consolepeasants praise their overpriced toys' capabilities, they always ignore a few key ingredients in their shitsoup:
>mandatory paid subscriptions if you wanna play online (XBL and PSN)>other forms of paid subscriptions used to replace "backwards compatibility" (Nintendo's expansion packs)>third form of subs used to shill "cheap games" you don't actually own (Goypass)>80 dollar + tip average going price for modern AAA console vidya>80 dollar pheripherals>NO right / capability to upgrade or fix console's HW>NO way to fix and mod any console software>NO multiscreen / multires / multi Hz support>Next to no multitasking capabilities>Seldom chance to host your own games online, or MAKE your own games>ALL Snoy games come to PCEven the most base-line PC provides so much bang for your buck, on top of instantly saving you a mountain of pennies every passing month, that it'd be insanity to even consider a console in the year 2010+15.