Only because it's limited by software. Hardwise I would say both gaming consoles and smart phones are a lot like a personal computer, in fact I think they pretty much are personal computers.

Gaming consoles are even more limited by software. They're literally running normal gaming PC hardware.

I'm always baffled when people are up in arms wanting to run _everything_ on their phones, which have very specific and niche hardware, but at the satime time are just fine with their consoles being 100% locked down without even a chance of side-loading. Nevermind an open 3rd party store.

I'm not at all fine with gaming consoles being like that. My point above is that they are limited (aka locked down) intentionally by software, not hardware capabilities. I have a many years long boycott in place and won't buy a gaming console unless they change that and open them up. Steam decks only for me until then.