Rare decision to bascially end the crossplay feature is going to hurt the community as whole, its not a win for console player. its just going to hurt the player base.

Console players think this is a win for them but in reality it hurts the player base. Anytime you split the community apart it hurts the game as a whole. Sea of thieves has already lost huge amounts of players due to most of its players coming from the Xbox pass. With Rare decision to basically end cross play since most Xbox console user will opt out of cross play, Its going to cause the game to be empty. There are way more console players than PC players in the game which is going to hurt PC server population more than the console players. Another issue is I have a lot of friends who I play with on the console where I can just pop into their game if their on, if they opt out of the crossplay, I'll never be able to join them if they aren't wanting to end there voyage early and restart. This is going to be extremely annoying as I enjoy playing with my friends. The perceived advantage over console players with aiming I think its over blown out of proportion. Not every PC player is as skilled as summit for example and the double shot feature is making things seem worst than it actually is.. A lot of my console friends can easily hold there own and dominate other crews. Its just about players skill level and strategy when attacking other people. Rare Crossplay decision is going to damage the community by splitting it apart when it comes to server populations. A empty world of players is a dead world which mean the game will die and no one will play which means no more DLC for anyone.

In summary, Rare decision with allowing console players to opt out of Crossplay will damage the game (hurting the PC community more).
Reason :

1. Server population will be reduced on both platforms hurting the PC players more than console but still hurting both sides. Less people to fill the servers and to team up with. This means the game world will feel emptier and be hard to find players. ( Hurts the PC side more since there a lot more console players than PC players)

2. With splitting the community up, its going to be a lot more difficult to play with your friends who are both on console/PC. If your console friends opt out of crossplay which most console players will, It will be extremely annoying and difficult to join them as access to there game will be blocked I assume by the opt out. No one going to want to cancel a Athena voyage there well into to pick up a extra person.

3. Low player count hurts both Console and players for the longevity of the game. The game had already lost large amounts of players thanks to the Xbox game pass. The player base is already low with both PC/console players combined. It will be even lower with the split. If people are torn apart which is what Rare is doing and combine with the Number 1 reason, people will stop playing as this is a online multiplayer game. When people stop playing, Microsoft will stop funding and will move on to something else meaning NO ONE will be getting anymore DLC.

4. The skill gap between console and PC players is really blown out of proportion. The reason why people think there a difference is because of the double gun 1 shot problem that everyone is experiencing. You fix that and the perceived advantage goes away.

In short though, RIP Sea of Thieves, This isn't a victory as some console players think, It really marks the beginning of the end for game.