Was that a temporary deal, or can we expect it to go down again?
The prices fluctuate, not only in general, but also depending on the grade of the product. It might be that the cheaper model was a lower grade, or it might be they know they don't have much stock so have put the price up a little.
You can call them to ask about the deals, and if you also buy an extended warranty they may do you a deal. Likewise a lot of people have better luck calling their local centre to see what they have in stock.
You are likely going to get the best deal making a call that just buying online or using live chat.
To put things into perspective, are both the current brand new and refurbished prices for the XG9505 on the sony website worth it? Or are they overpriced? If the XH9505 does indeed go down to £1000 or less, would it be logical to expect a further price reduction on the XG9505, assuming both will be stocked, brand new or refurbished.
I don't think the XG9505 is going to be stocked come Black Friday, by then its likely they will have stock of newer TVs, but they will still be on the expensive side since they aren't end of life. The best discounts from these refurb stores tend to happen around spring time each year as they try to clear them out in time for space for newly released models.
I'm open to other brands as well, it's just that Sony's hdr capable lcd tvs seem to be relatively cheaper than other brands, produce the most accurate natural colours and have the best motion for movies. Although, I will be gaming on my console from time to time as well.
The only real competition to Sony with LCD TVs is from Samsung. There TVs have good accuracy in SDR mode, but differ from accurate pictures more in HDR mode. If you want the best all round picture accuracy Sony is certainly the way to go. Any TV you buy now is more than good enough for gaming, but if you want to future proof most for next gen gaming you need to consider buying at a later time and looking only at models that include HDMI 2.1. Strictly talking LCD TVs right now that would mean waiting for the Samsung Q80T and above to come down in price, and taking a hit in picture accuracy by going with Samsung for that HDMI 2.1 port that the Sony XH9505 lacks for gaming features like Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate support.
Hisense may have some competition in the new U8Q, but again its a 2020 model so best not considered now. It also doesn't have HDMI 2.1 hardware like Sony.
Probably won't be until 2021 TVs are released that we see HDMI 2.1 being more common..possibly later.