I figure the consoles are going x86 to reduce development costs. Most game performance nowadays seems more dependent on GPU acceleration than raw CPU compute power. Even the physics calculations now seem to be living in the GPU.
Plus, for most users CPUs are now largely irrelevent anyway. I spent about 6 months using an eeePC laptop (Atom powered) connected to a 21" monitor and keyboard; it was only on the very rare occasion I'd do something CPU intensive that I'd remember it was a piece of crap netbook.
The P5020 is a recent design CPU; for most tasks it will probably be overkill. For CPU intensive tasks (for example 3D rendering) it may not be as great as the latest x86 but then when you're talking 10 hour render times, a ~25% difference isn't such a huge deal. Plus, much of this is moving to the GPU too (CUDA, OpenCL, Cycles render engine).
I guess my point is - the CPU is a significant (?) step up from the PA6T, it provides a future roadmap and will probably cost less than the X1000. Comparing a new gen Amiga to a PC or games console is pointless.
My main concerns revolve around the SMP kernel, how much software will break as a consequence and how stable/usable the OS will be as a daily use desktop. Most of the apps I use are open source and AFAIK lack any native Amiga equivelents. I could get by using X (if stable?) but OS4 deserves to be more than a dumb X terminal.
I hope with further development of both the hardware and OS, software development will follow.
