As for your question about Amazon on release day. Both my brother and I had not received our PS4s by what you would assume was end of day. Like 6pm-ish. We both got on customer support and got some like 20 dollar discount or something, and then our consoles arrived around 7 or 8pm. In totally different towns in the bay area.
Nowadays. I live in a different town. and it is a sort of crap shoot on getting items on release day. I have Prime, but seems every game I order, says its out for delivery all day on release day. Then around 8 or 9 I get some BS message that this or that happened. And I dont get my item till the next day. And Amazon has been more and more stingy on offering discounts or whatever.
I have gotten most consoles on release day, but majority by mail. Or just going in the day of and picking them up. Except maybe Wii?
NES - Got late
Genisis - Got late
Game Boy - Late
SNES - Late
Jaguar - Mail on release(dont recall if it was actually received on release day)
TG16- Prob a little late, by mail
PS1 - Dont really recall, release day by mail pretty sure or store pick up(no lines I recall)
N64 - Release day by mail or store pick up(no lines I recall)
GBA - Dont recall, probably by mail.
PS2 - Brother shipped Japanese version to me from Japan on release
Xbox - year or 2 after release
GC- Order Japanese version on release from Japan, (Rogue Squadraun released a week early in US before console was out in NA, and was playing that on a self modded Japanese GC)
DS - Dont recall, was on release or around it.
PS3 - Year or 2 after release
DS Lite - Think I traded up DS around release.
360 - few months after release
Wii - pre ordered from GS, got up early in the morning a waited a few hours in line, wasn't bad.
3DS - Pre ordered from GS, went in middle of day on launch day and picked it up, no lines.
WiiU - Prob pre order from GS, picked up on morning of release day, don't recall any major waiting.
PS4 - Explained above, delivered night time on release day.
Switch - Delivered to work on release day from Amazon.
Pro - delivered from Amazon on release day.
I feel midnight game launches have been a bit more eventful and longer waiting than consoles imo. But only maybe did 3 or 4 of those(mostly for Halos), and they are not really a thing anymore. But I never waited for more than a couple hours.
enjoyed getting all the consoles on release or there abouts. No real regrets, I can be patient waiting for games I guess. Was most hyped for N64, PS1, GC, Wii, 3DS, WiiU, PS4 and Switch. Those were definitely the highlights.