At the very least it'll make for a bad comparison to Xbox, which will almost certainly be BC next-gen.
That difference has existed before, but I feel like GaaS is gonna make a bigger difference this time around. I think it'll hurt if PS5 launches without Fortnite, Minecraft, Red Dead 2, GTAV, Overwatch, and whatever other GaaS game is really popular on current-gen at the time. These will be games where players have years of purchases and progress they'll want to carry over. What if Sony forces them to pay again for a PS5 version (which probably won't be there at launch) and Microsoft just lets everybody keep playing the same copy they already bought on their new console?
Because a remaster is a lot different when it's an OPTION. You can buy Gears remastered yeah, but you can also just play the gears you already own. You can buy MCC remastered, but you can still put in a Halo disc and play it as well. Also, these remasters you're mentioning are VERY SIGNIFICANT upgrades. Most 'remasters' that other games have gotten are barely some token resolution upgrades. Significant remasters (Like SOTC) will always exist, BC or not.
It's a big difference to say "Hey you can play your old games, and we might do a remaster for something people want" versus "Hey, if you want to play your old game, buy it again, with some token improvements"
Depending on what happens, next-gen could end up actually blurring the line between a remaster and a BC game. There's a real possibility that the next-gen systems could just download upgrade patches for BC games when you insert the disc. It might just be a more significant step up from PS4 Pro and Xbox One X when you really get under the hood. There's a good chance at least Microsoft will do this, and if Sony doesn't it could look bad.
At that point, can you even get away with selling a remaster that just ups the resolution from 1800p to 2160p, maybe improves the textures, adds some lighting effects, and ups the framerate? I feel like PS4 Pro-to-PS5 "remasters" would feel a lot less significant than PS3-to-PS4 remasters. I could understand if it was something on the level of total remakes like Resident Evil 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash, or some other game being pulled from at least two console generations in the past. We might reach a point where remasters on consoles are treated like they already are on PC: Simple resolution and asset bumps of games a few years old are either free or sold at significant discount for existing owners, and the only remasters sold at full-price are the ones where at the very least all the art assets are redone from nothing.
