and there is a comparably steep commitment required to research CPUs, GPUs, storage, cooling, and RAM, and how their combination will affect performance and longevity

I mean those same things affect consoles too, you just don't get a choice. Sony prioritized keeping the PS5 quiet so the CPU and GPU run pretty warm. If you add an SSD it's just hot boxing itself in that awful enclosure. You can always just yolo it like you would when buying a console. Then if it's bad on a PC you at least have the option to fix it.