E3 for me has always been important and a hallmark. When nintendo 1st announced they weren't doing E3's anymore I was really upset with them too. However they pretty much still do E3's just don't have a live event outside of like that one year, which is fine.
For all my homies, they looked forward to the super bowl or the Finals or some awards show. I looked forward to E3, its always been like the "super bowl" of gaming and tokyo game show has been like the "finals" of gaming. So it's lame to me that Sony is not planning on being there at all. As much as I joke/troll and hate on sony. I'm a gamer so I want to see games and competition.
But the way sony stans work, once playstation deems something "lame" or not worth there time the stans role with it and create all kind of excuses or narratives. And I don't want that to happen with E3, E3 has really became a celebration of games. Just like SDCC has become celebration of comics. both are less hardcore now and a bit more gen pop. But still great.