People are wired weirdly. If they’d not offered this feature at all, people would be content. Now that they’re offering it but for money, people are super upset.
I do agree it’s a somewhat weird thing to do: they’re very likely not going to make bank with a feature that very few people would want (out of those who even bought the a7IV) and even fewer of whom would pay for it. So why make it something you pay for at all? The negative reaction was absolutely inevitable, whereas a “hey, here’s something cool our cameras can do now” might have been a positive PR move.
If they’d not offered this feature at all, people would be content.
People complain all the time about things missing simple software features.
Most people complaining about this aren’t worried about this feature but rather the precedent of simple software features updates costing money on top of already very expensive price tags.
It has nothing to do with Sony’s departments finding a middle ground and compromising. This is a result of investors not being happy enough with Sony’s revenue numbers. They want Sony’s camera division to make more money because ✨capitalism✨. It’s that simple. So, they’re testing the market with new ideas on how to generate more revenue. This here is one of them. If enough people buy this product in a given time period, they’ll start adopting this model for future products as well because investors love a dynamic business model. Try and understand what it means to greedy people if they manage to sell a very basic feature at a high price. That means they can charge even more for more complex features, which is their end-goal. Because they have the data to prove that customers are willing to pay for it. And that’s why people are upset.