It's a lame copout to say it didn't matter that a system had a poor launch because its 'rivals' were coming later,
You can't compare the PS2 to rivals that didn't exist yet. You're being completely irrational, you can only compare to the DC launch to the ps2, and outside Japan I said the PS2 was worse, and Sega squandered their early advantage their second year.
The Mega Drive launch sales didn't set sales alight in the USA,
This was never part of the conversation, I explained this twice, you brought this up without reason. The point was that Sega failed to convert Genesis owners because it didn't have games they wanted.
SEGA just behind the Saturn could have put up a much better fight and possibly could have come a good 2nd place and if SEGA had Square a easy number 1 in Japan
No it couldn't, they did not have the games to bring in new SEGA customers or two convert genesis owners. I know this is something Saturn fans constantly have trouble admitting but Sony hrounroughtg in an expanded audience and converted many computer and console users over time, Sega didn't do either even just within it's own ecosystem.
As for Japan, you continue with the strange delusion that Sega having FF7 would work, it wouldn't unless it was Exclusive, and even then that wouldn't have given Sega victory because Sony already had other system sellers even without FF7 before and during that same year. It was already near 2:1 with momentum before FF7 or the hype for it before release even began. Also already games on both systems were frequently selling more on PS1 even then.
You're basically ignoring all this to create an imaginary battle where you can pretend the only reason the Saturn became irrelevant innjapannis because of FF7, no. Even then SEGA would never get it as an exclusive regardless, it would be in both, and Sony would back it and have the marketing deal, and it would sell more on PS1.
In America the games barely relevant compared to all the other big sellers.
I keep bringing up Japan for the simple reason it was a market where SEGA and Saturn was able to outsell the PS for large periods and also the N64
It wasn't large periods, they were losing substantially in less than two physical years to the PSX from launch. The Saturn also never outsold the N64 a single year the N64 was out. N64 was delayed and outsold the Saturn every fiscal year it was out in Japan, if the N64 released earlier the Saturn would have lost. N64 had no fighters, jrpgs, and many other japanese favorite genres yet it outsold the Saturn in it's first fiscal year which was the peak Saturn fiscal year. N64 ended less than the Saturn but they both ended up in the 5 million sales tier.