That's true, a lot of it was about presentation or marketing, and these consoles, in the end, are more alike that different. Otoh, there were some significant differences, apart from the presentation/pitch itself -- e.g., policies affecting used games, mandatory online check- ins, mandatory Kinect, hardware differences, and $100 price difference.
The price difference was so inconceivable that I totally forgot that the the X1 was $100 more for awhile. Lol
Also, I don't mean to downplay Sony's execution. Not only did they have an answer for every Microsoft flub up. They also corrected a lot of their own practices that were heavily criticized.