I'd argue that Shu's public endorsement doesn't carry the weight you think it does. GoW is an internal project and he was giving internal feedback; he would never, before launch, publicly say that he was unimpressed with any game, let alone a Sony game. But internally, it's his job to be as critical as possible, especially of their own games. I wouldn't compare the two situations...
miHoYo's Genshin Impact and its 100 million dollar budget
I'd argue that Shu's public endorsement doesn't carry the weight you think it does. GoW is an internal project and he was giving internal feedback; he would never, before launch, publicly say that he was unimpressed with any game, let alone a Sony game. But internally, it's his job to be as critical as possible, especially of their own games. I wouldn't compare the two situations...