Actually sony tried to fight it because of the COD franchise mainly but didn’t get into suing them, but they were a big part of the opposition when it came to governments giving approval of such a huge merger
Yes, they just don’t release every game they work on, or sit on them for longer than most because their finances are no longer dependent on the games they make themselves
Personal i think the criteria for no longer being an indie dev is if the company is funded by a publisher or the company itself has been or has the capacity to be a publisher themselves