Correct, it was a corporation ran entirely by the hardware/R&D guys who did that. The very divisions they're now shedding to move towards a more straight media and services company with select hardware offerings.
Sony kept themselves in-check throughout the PS1 era and the PS2 era. It wasn't until Ken Kutaragi and the engineering side really got carte blanche that they delivered the PS3. Prior to that it was a very comparable hardware concept to the PS4 with PS1 (straight forward, focus on a few key aspects in 3D and optical storage) and while the PS2 was convoluted hardware it offered significantly more power per dollar than other alternatives at the time, gave great developer freedom in hardware implementation, and absolutely raced to a mainstream price point compared to all it's predecessors. It also included DVD without forcing a subsidy and was the generation where Sony tried creating a mid-tier software market with $40 first party releases.
The people responsible for the good parts of the PS2 (first party growth, 3rd party openness) now run the show (namely Kaz Hirai) and the people who designed the PS3 are pretty much all out the door. The corporate culture has done a complete 180, assuming they'll somehow backslide in a single generation when the company is really looking at a 10+ year climb back to being any kind of corporate power is pretty absurd.