Sorry homme

Well, it looks very nice, visually speaking.

Yet I don't see the need to make two new Xbox One versions, making a single one for VR makes sense.

As someone who already has the first Xbox One version I see no reason to buy the 'One S', granted I only use my Xbox One for racing games, mainly the Forza stuff, but still ... I don't think the market really needed the S version when they have the original.

Unless of-course they intend to phase out the original Xbox One, and replace it with the other two versions.

The S is just the normal shrink. It's less expensive to make and better liked by consumers. Current owners aren't expected to upgrade, but it encourages new purchases.

The VR one is further down the line. No point in sticking to a bigger, more expensive to make box just because next year there will be something else, especially if both will be sold alongside each other.

except that this one adds an ultra hd blu ray drive

Ah OK, so it does seem that they want to phase out their first Xbox One version with the S-version.

To be honest, if I had a choice I would also choose the S version over the original version, it takes up less space and looks nicer.

True, but this is not out of the ordinary. PS3 slim added CEC and Dolby audio. The Xbox 360 came out without HDMI, which was added about 2 years later.

those are not massive changes though
the slim adds support for a whole new format

Depends on your definition of massive. From a gamer's point of view none of these changes matter (well, maybe HDMI does). From a videophile POV I can't say which is more important (because I'm not one, yet I wonder how many people really care about Ultra HD Blu-ray).

The Xbox One S does seem to offer more of a hardware upgrade than previous consoles, which I guess is a result of using PC hardware (and a PC OS). And it also doesn't seem to drop support for anything, which has been the hallmark of many console updates in the past, so that's certainly a good thing.

Edit: The addition of HDMI is what later allowed the 360 to support stereoscopic 3D on 3D TV's (list of 3D Xbox 360 games). So I'd say that from a gaming POV this is more of an upgrade than the Xbox One S seems to offer.