Originally posted by luftfluss No going back to DSLR - at least not as a mainstream photography device. Video is a massive driver of camera sales and innovation, and DSLRs simply cannot match MILC in that department, in addition to things like size/weight and so-called computational photography.. The next step will be beyond mirrorless, maybe even beyond what we currently consider a "camera".
That said, I do think there will, for a long time, be a niche where photographers want to be able to view their subject in reality - not a digital representation. And that means DSLRs, and Pentax is now situated to be the DSLR company.
BTW, most high-performance MILCs do, in fact, have PDAF, used in conjunction with CDAF.
The problem is that video isn't a massive driver of camera sales. If you look at overall camera sales, they are down 30 percent from 2017. The reality is that MILCs form factor is not ideal for dedicated video. It is true that if you want a few clips, you can work with it, but if video is your main goal, then I am not certain that you are going after an A9 or Z7 or whatever the hot MILC is.
The problem is really that digital photography has matured as a market. People aren't turning over cameras and buying new ones the way they used to and many people have shifted to phones -- both for snap shots and video. Canon and Nikon had a brief improvement in sales through switching their lens mounts and letting their users know that the old mounts were not going to be supported long term. It has probably helped Canon more than Nikon.
Pentax has always been niche and they will probably always be niche. Somehow they have out lasted all of the others in their niche area and if they can figure out how to properly advertise the differences between their SLRs and MILCs and get people to see that functionally the still images are the same, but in use, the SLRs can be more enjoyable than maybe they will continue to sell enough cameras to be viable.
I wouldn't make any predictions. I expect the overall market to continue to contract and it seems likely that not everyone currently making ILCs will still be making them in five years. Panasonic has already telegraphed that they aren't going to continue working hard on still photography cameras, but focus on video. Canon and Sony seem the best off and Nikon is stuck, since that this their main business. Fuji seems to make more money off of instant film than digital photography. Anyway, most of the people making predictions are wrong, but it will take time to get to the future and find out how wrong we all are.