but they don't care about what happens before that point in the pipeline.They most certainly do. The difference is in their point of control. Console makers exercise far more control over who is allowed to develop for their platform, and that control extends to who is allowed to develop middleware. They may or may not have restrictions on programming languages, but they do more generally exercise a degree of control over the tools you're allowed to use. It's difficult to know exactly what is and isn't allowed, as it's all under NDA, but there are certainly some shared motives.
The Xbox 360™ Tools and Middleware Program licenses professional developers of games software tools and games middleware applications to obtain full Xbox 360 Development Kits and to distribute Xbox 360 code to approved Xbox 360 developers and publishers. -- http://www.xbox.com/en-US/dev/tools.htm
3rd Party Tools, QA/Testing, and Localization companies can also apply for Authorized Status using the same Application. You will need to select the appropriate category from the drop-down box in the Application. -- http://www.warioworld.com/apply/
Under this license program, licensees will be entitled to 1) access to development environment and technical information of "PLAYSTATION®3" which is the same as development environment and technical information that licensed game title developers have access to, 2) develop tools and/or middleware to be used in the game title development for "PLAYSTATION®3", and 3) directly provide licensed game title developers with such tools and/or middleware. -- http://www.tmstation.scei.co.jp/ps3/info_e.html