you also have to keep in mind, the client that purchases cutting edge nodes first is apple. AMD only currently uses it for Zen 5c, and Qualcomm uses it for snapdragon elite/8 gen 4. mobile usally always gets them for efficiency reasons(and better yields due to smaller dies). other markets have historically been a node behind already (e.g despite the 9800x3d being new, its only a N4 die with a N6 io die)

early zen werent performant in lower core count loads, but were extremely competitive in multi core workloads, especially when performamce per dollar was added into the equation. even if one revisits heavy multi core workload benchmarks, they faired fairly well in it. its just at a consumer level, they werent up to snuff yet because in gaming, they were still stuck with developers optimizing for an 8 thread console, and for laptops amds presence was near non existant.

only casually read stuff on hardocp around the sandy/ivy bridge generation. but yes a good chunk of it died to video coverage of the content. its why for example Gamers Nexus has the reverse approach where the video content is their main priority (and audience) and they maintain their own website because thats what they wanted to do.

the main benefit on the performance increase from zen4 to zen 5 is the reordering of the cache and chip layers allowed them to clock the cores higher, as one of the biggest bottlenecks for older x3d designs was clocks, due to the chip internally insulating a lot of the heat, so their clocks were stepped back from their non x3d counterparts.

the 9800x3d base and turbo clocks are a generous step up from previous gen, and likely the biggest contributing factor to the performamce increase when reviews drop.