> They tend to update that page after a Safari update, which is yearly

So you very well knew Apple weren't "comparing against a one-year old version."

> And for next year's release they again pick the benchmarks that look best for them at that moment in time

They're using the exact same benchmarks as last year, and the numbers seem to be improving for Safari. May I remind you I actually checked the past version of Apple's website on the Wayback Machine?