I think Sony wasn't sure for a long time whether they wanted their consoles to stand out as consoles or blend in with other electronics like sound systems and VCRs. PSX looks like a console, PS2, PS3, and PS4 looked like electronics, PS5 looks like a console again.

I think they were trying to differentiate themselves from Nintendo, whose systems looked very much like toys (other than the Wii and Wii U (the system, not the controller)... And NES, actually, that one didn't stand out as much as SNES, N64, or especially the GCN).