Yeah that's just the feelings I had. I literally am basing my opinion off zero data and just how I felt! It's actually funny because the years I was really into building my own computer was 2016-2017! I'm still looking but not as invested now.
yeah there were still ridiculously priced processors (funny how the "$1000 processor" memes got forgotten when 3950X came around) but there were also serious dealz on higher core count processors, if you made the effort to buy them. The consumer platform didn't hop right up to hexacore+, but they were there on the HEDT platform if you wanted them.
but yea 6000 and 7000 series they were milking it.
I can’t say either way for sure, I’m not an accountant at Intel. But I don’t think anyone else here is either.