Or the new controller has new functions that will be used in games? Just a thought. I seriously don't understand the backlash on this when it was completely obvious and expected.
The haptic feedback feature for example, is way more than a gimmick devs won't use. This effectively replaces the rumble motors. The rumble motors haven't really changed since the first dualshock, and amounts to not much more than a weighted piece of metal on the end of a rod, usually inside the grips.
Microsoft furthered this with their version of 'haptics'with the impulse triggers on the Xbkx One pad, however the haptics part was a bit misleading, while technically haptic feedback can include basic rumble, its not what haptic feedback is usually meant to describe. The impulse triggers were just smaller rumble motors of old located in the trigger area.
The haptic feedback being talked about with the PS5 controller, is a big step up from this, it can take many forms, lots of applications use small pads among other things to transmit it. A good example of modern haptic feedback is in the iPhone 8. The home button when the phone is turned off, isn't a button, its just recessed glass with a ring around it, it doesn't push or depress like a traditional button. When the phone is on however, it uses haptic feedback so that when you press the button, it clicks, or feels like it clicks, in an extremely convincing manner. A slightly less proniubced example while still using phones is the keyboard on my Galaxy Note 10, the haptic motor is a relatively small square pad but it can transmit its vibrations in very specific ways, I.e. when I'm typing on the keyboard, every keystroke has a tight vibration to replicate the press, but it pinpoints it to feel like each individual letter has its own touch feel, and the space bar has a slightly more powerful vibe. That kind of tight tactile feel can't be replicated with traditional rumble motors which just spin weights at different speeds.
So when they talk about the haptic feedback being able to recreate feeling texture and so on, its this extremely tight and responsive feedback that will achieve that. It will feel much more nuanced and reactive to your hand placement.
This is why this will be more than a gimmick, devs either use it or you don't get vibration feedback. And people love the controller feedback so it will be utilised. Granted to varying degrees but it will be used and will feel excellent.
I think this is how the adaptive triggers will work, haptic feedback can create a feeling of tension in extreme cases by creating extremely tight vibrations. Although this part remains to be seen.
This means in a nutshell, the DS4 would simply lose a huge part of the detail the DualSense will provide, without having to be reprogrammed to use dual shock as well in the game.