True, there is an aim assist feature in console games; that feature is also a part of many PC games, but that's different than the the auto aim consoles use to compensate for the disparity in ping they suffer... a disparity that exists because they often run games on P2P networks.
PC's don't have this "feature" because they don't need it; you can usually find a dedicated box which provides a nice low ping... a box that doesn't rely on Big Tony's home connection.
I've often heard PS3 guys say that their games run great on Sony's servers... yeah... well, how do you think they're able to do that?
Play Stations are not immune to the pitfalls of gaming on P2P networks just because they're Play Stations, besides, not all PS games run off Sony's servers: only Sony games are run on Sony's servers. Third party games, like Modern Warfare 2, use P2P networks. If auto aim wasn't hard coded into the game, you could not play... you'd never hit a thing when your ping jumped to 800ms, which, unfortunately, is not uncommon for gamers who must rely on P2P networks.
If you also have the PC version of the game you can view how bad P2P networks are for yourself. By default, each green bar you see represents 100ms, which, as any gamer who plays on dedicated servers knows, isn't exactly optimal.
• Navigate to the folder: 'program files\steam\steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\players' and open the file config_mp.cfg
• Change scoresping_interval from 100 to 20, and maxbars from 4 to 10 (10 is the max).
• This means that each of the 10 bars represents 20ms, with full green being 20ms or lower, and 1 red being 200ms or higher.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/6871/ihost.jpg
WHAT HOST ADVANTAGE LOOKS LIKE:
ImageShack -
... or, another way would be to fire up a PC game and find a server with the highest ping you can, and try playing... that's what consoles would be like if they didn't have auto aim as no piece of nifty code, no optimization can negate the reality of distance between client and host.
As far as why you don't mow down everyone, well... consoles sort of do... I've found that you really only have to point in the general direction of someone to earn a kill.
... and never mind about how imprecise a controller is vs a keyboard and mouse... if consoles had to deal with that thousands of guys would be stabbing their eyes out with forks.