I'm not going to go into the nuts and bolts of that because a lot of this is "some people said X", and that isn't constructive dialogue. I don't recall people championing the price hike for PlayStation Plus two years ago. In fact, here's a thread that shows most people (myself included) were not pro-price hike:
It's been a little while since we saw a glimpse of the Bad Old Sony – the company that priced the PS3 at $200 above its…
www.gamesindustry.biz
In the past couple of weeks, though, it feels like we've seen a couple of unwelcome flashes of the arrogant beast that Sony once was.
First there was the news that the PlayStation Portal – a
curious device whose price point makes it very interesting even if its limited feature-set makes it
unclear who exactly it's designed for – has eschewed Bluetooth audio for a Sony proprietary standard, forcing users to buy forthcoming Sony earbuds or headsets to enjoy wireless...
And then there's this thread:
PS Plus is back on the rise after a slightly rocky time following the service's big overhaul in 2022. As per Sony's latest financial results, the network services category — which comprises revenue from PS Plus and advertising — is up quarter-on-quarter
and year-on-year, meaning it's comfortably improved since moving to the current three tier system.
In the fourth quarter of financial year 23, network services generated approximately $959 million of revenue, a marked improvement over FY22's Q4 (~$760.6 million). For FY23 as a whole, revenue for PS Plus and advertising...
That thread shows that most people weren't reacting favorably to the increased revenue since it was, at least in part, due to price increases. The occasional troll or corporate bootlicker aside, bragging about revenue after price hikes is uncouth, regardless of who is doing it. Don't act like poor Microsoft is the victim while Sony is being lauded as the hero. That's not what is happening.