Consoles seem to be taking a worrying route, that of smartphones

I think Ps4 Pro and Xbox One X just marked the beginning of an era where the gap between hardware revisions will narrow down to the point that we may one day have yearly releases, just like smartphones. The good news may be that you'll still be able to play games on your "older" piece of hardware, but at a worse performance, or enjoying less whistles and bells present in the newer versions.

What do you guys think about such scenario?

It's only natural, seeing the rate at which tech is advancing. And it makes sense business wise. I don't see the problem with it, if anything, being stuck with a piece of hardware for over 5 years, in this day and age, is ridiculous; that also means holding back progress. The 5-6 years generation gap is no more a viable option.

Game development is not something you do in a short time, it generally takes years to make a video game. Generations also allow devs to develop and optimize effectively on a specific hardware, so I don't know why that'd not a "viable" option.

I don't think we'll be seeing updated consoles as anywhere near as often as smartphones... it's a different market. Phil Spencer has specifically said that they aren't interested in releasing new consoles unless it offers a significant upgrade. So i don't think it'll get as bad as you are suggesting.

That's not the route I'm seeing happening. The route is subscription/cloud gaming, we may not be ready now, but I'd say in 5-10 years gamers will just Neflix their games without the need of specific console boxes. There are already several services out there offering cloud gaming, such as Geforce Now, LiquidSky, Snoost and others. Then we have the rise of subscription gaming services such as Game Pass and Origin Access, offering pretty neat libraries for a fixed price that you' pay monthly or yearly. I think that is the future.

Smartphones and game consoles are very different beasts and I really don’t see game consoles coming out with upgraded models every year or even every 2 years. I can see a mid gen refresh at around 3 to 4 years though and then 3 to 4 years after that have a new generation come out. I’m cool with that myself.

Not even remotely close. If the pro and scorpio outsold the original versions, then it would be time to panic but the conventional attitude towards consoles is simply nothing like smart phones. Also, consoles dont have a battery that goes to absolute crap with constant use over the course of a year or two. The psychology and reality of consoles is very different. Also, game development cycles will always be a hard limit on how quickly they can be replaced.

No one knows what the trend is. Tablets were once thought of as a threat, but they've been dismissed now.

Then there was the thought that PC would supplant powerful consoles - well, they haven't even supplanted comparatively low-powered systems (Switch).

Then there was the thought that freemium gaming would kill AAA gaming - that's not happening either.

So I think consoles will be available as pure gaming machines for a while longer.