Saw the same thing with Microsoft's xcloud. Apples to apples comparisons are pretty lackluster right now, but it looks like Stadia has lower input latency. That might be in part due to the controller connection design. People using their Xbox controllers are going through bluetooth, then their phone. Overall, the normal laws of physics latency caused by distance look to be deal breakers for a lot of players, meaning cloud gaming in general might stay niche for a lot longer. Stadia is getting the bad press because it's first to expose the issue what would affect all the services. Xcloud has the potential to steam from a local xbox which might make things a bit more interesting, but the whole thing is still in beta.
I saw people that decided to not jump into Stadia claiming it was another one of Google's abondonware projects. I really hope they fix the issues and try to push gaming forward. I personally think it can be huge here in Japan if done right.
“If done right” but they haven’t shown that they can, since they launched it in a half baked state, with a tiny game library and high cost (having to pay for the subscription and games).
To add to that, stadia has claimed teraflop ”power” that is almost double of the XBox One X yet runs red dead redemption 2 at half the resolution of what the Xbox does.
