[smileybarry]

It's mostly understandable because, historically, video game exclusives were either developed or published by the console manufacturer. Some people might get annoyed that this cool game isn't coming to their platform of choice, but as soon as they saw "published by Sony", they understood.

They've also helped pay for the console with hardware sold at a loss (near-loss nowadays after the PS3 loss mess). So it was seen as a necessary "evil" by most.

The one being seen nowadays as bad -- which answers your "everyone except David" metaphor -- is Epic Games buying "everyone except Steam" exclusivity deals. But that topic is too deep to go into here.