Re: 'Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an always-on console'
Quite frankly, no. I am a gamer. I am also a techy (software and package developer with long history of support).
I purchased Diablo 3, Sim City and have a lot of DRM infused software on my PC. I hate every single aspect of it. The main time I get to game is while I'm travelling, either by train or once I'm actually in a hotel. Both of the games I mentioned previously do not work without an Internet connection.
If for whatever reason my internet goes down I do not want my console suddenly telling me I cannot play a game I have legally purchased prior just because Virgin/BT/ISP of choice is having a technical burp.
Then imagine, for whatever reason, that technical burp goes on for a whole day, a few days, whatever. You still, for reasons outside of your control, cannot use your console for the purpose it was intended and purchased for. Would you accept the same from your laptop? Your television? Your mobile? Of course not. That it what the uproar is about. There is no bandwagon. There is genuine distrust from the supplier of the console that assumes that everyone lives in fully built up areas with 100% uptime records which UK ISP's cannot provide.
I live in a rural area where cable (or equivalent ADSL) services haven't permeated the entire region. A lot of people I know locally have only had basic ADSL installed within the last 2 years and can only just achieve 1 or 2Mb (with ridiculous latency and downtime galore) thanks to the distance from the exchange. I would never be able to consciously recommend they purchase a console that requires this sort of 100% connectivity as they would only be able to use it half the time, if they are lucky.
Even though I am lucky enough to have a decent connection, which *knock on wood* has had great uptime so far; and the fact that I actually prefer Microsoft on the current generation of consoles, this decision has made me think twice on the next generation. Sony, for all they've done wrong in the past, has made me reconsider.