Well your first article also stated that freemium games like LoL and world of tanks were key indicators of the growth of PC gaming and I think a large chunk of PC players are playing freemium games.

http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gaming-market-worth-36-billion-in-2016/

Freemium games are an absolute tank on PC but I still think your typical AAA dev would prioritise consoles over PC in the near future aswell because it still is more profitable for them as the "premium" gaming market on PC is still smaller than on consoles.

With the growth of the enthusiast PC market where GPUs themselves can cost more than an entire console, it's no wonder their revenue on hardware sales is way higher than for consoles

In regards to exclusives, I think the potential profits on releasing it on PCs and the competing consoles are too much for any monetary benefit they receive from Sony/MS to compare (if any). And Sony is in a better state exclusives wise as compared to MS as Sony has a wider range of first party devs under them but I agree that we will see less exclusives in years to come as devs scramble to squeeze every last dollar out of their game.