I had a somewhat similar experience. Except because sony wouldn’t even let me make an account in my country I couldn’t add a payment card, so if I wanted PS+ I would’ve had to buy a gift card for it for the country my account was set to lol. Similarly I couldn’t buy digital games or DLC without going through that bullshit either, so I just bought physical disks.

I was a teen then so not having a job also meant the PS+ thing was a bit of a cycle - I wouldn’t buy PS+ cause I had no games that needed it, and I wouldn’t buy games that needed PS+ cause I didn’t have it, as I only had a limited amount a month to actually spend on games :p

Anywho yeah, with not having to pay for online, having mods, not being so loud I’d often miss plot critical details, way better options for control configurations for controller, and actually being able to buy games without having to go through loopholes… well I just found PC gaming better in just about every way once I got a computer, so I really had to interest in the PS5, especially at the price range it launched at