It's really weird lol but it goes both ways
I would say it was wrong when MS bought Rise of Tomb Raider timed exclusivity and Titanfall lifetime exclusivity, and it is wrong today. I dont think it benefits anyone. I was upset about it back when Tomb Raider happened, and I am not going to pretend everything is fine just because my preferred console is getting an exclusive.
The only time when timed exclusives are ok is when sony or MS jump in to save a game that was going to be cancelled. Like Titanfall which went overbudget and MS stepped in and got themselves a timed exclusive. If FF16 was in a similar position then fine. I dont think CoD or GTA publishers need money, and i dont think they are cancelling the next cod or GTA unlike say Project Athia which was in development hell and SE likely needed Sony or MS to bail them out. Though its always surprising to me why Sony is able to get these bailout deals and not MS who have deeper pockets.
yes there is nuance and not everything can be compared like for like.
But - how much of each individual deal are the armchair analysts of Era actually privy to? Barely anything is probably the answer, and this kind of info mostly comes out in hindsight with retrospectives etc a few years later.
Right now for the current batch this just feels like idle speculation from many, what they consider 'good' or 'bad' exclusivity as they don't know the background of most of these deals.
I agree there is a sliding scale of 'acceptability' pretty much in line with yours
Good - Games that simply wouldn't exist and a developer is hired to develop with MS/Sony/Nintendo publishing - like Spiderman or Sunset Overdrive
Fine - games that are at risk of being cancelled, or shipping part completed where a platform holder comes in to support financially
OK - Timed exclusive added content (assuming this is paid for additional work, not already existing that is being paid to be removed -important distinction)
Not good - timed exclusive entire games - at least everyone will get to play eventually but assuming this would have happened anyway then it feels like the money is more about excluding access for a period
Very bad - fully exclusive games where it is about exclusion where it otherwise woudl be available on another platform or be reasonably expected to