When has that ever been the case?
What I think you are referring to are those fancy "in-engine" target renders that many studios like to release before each gen. Two notable examples being:
or
The first one was never visually reached on current gen consoles, that new Hellblade trailer will imo also not be reached quality-wise this gen. They are in-engine and they are real-time, but they are not actual gameplay but cinematics and they are not actually running on a console but on a PC
targeting the visuals they
want to reach. They are indeed smoke and mirrors and very misleading.
The new Unreal Engine 5 demo is however a playable gameplay demo recorded on a PS5 dev kit in 30fps and 1440p resolution, already a caveat to reach this visual quality that they are admitting. Unless they are lying to us about other stuff this is indeed possible and we see it there with our own eyes.
Last but not least, the real-time demo Epic showcased before the PS4 released in 2013 was also real-time gameplay (they messed in real-time with the camera) on a PS4 dev kit and it was definitely matched and even surpassed this generation:
I will be giving them the benefit of a doubt for that reason.
Digital Foundry by the way also called BS on that Hellblade demo when they analysed it a couple months ago, but they do not doubt the UE5 demo. They are actually very impressed, but also point out some caveats, which again Epic is already admitting too.
Oh, and those water puddle effects also looked pretty shitty, so another reason I think that's te real deal, lol.