"Because the sheer power of the machine that produces the pretty pictures on the screen is all that counts!" :V
I've always found this notion pretty silly. In art, limitations can push the artist further- the fixed hardware of a console can cause a lot of big-budget games to resolve to visual creativity, and tricks to make the game look visually comparable to general games on the market.
I mean, what's more interesting to look at,
or
OK, so its debatable. But the first game came out on
Gamecube hardware, while the second is a PC game from this year.
And what about games like Ookami, or Killer 7? There are
plenty of visually beautiful console games, and a lot of other games that wouldn't have their signature look
without[/1] the hardware limitations. PC is fine, but counting consoles out of the visual running before you look at their libraries is unfair.
Personally, though, I could care less about what my machine can do as long as I'm getting a visual treat.