Max 8 cores? No i3s? Max turbo not higher than CML? If this is RKL I think this release is a big disappointment or just correct me if anything is misinformed......
You can't expect much from a backport of a 10nm core to an inferior process.
14nm_(insert random number of plusses) Willow Cove will lose in all metrics to its 10nm full version. Area, power, performance, all worse. Features that were the icing on the cake on the full version most probably got cut in the process.
Is it better than Skylake and its five or six refinements? Yes. Is it good enough for a 2021 product considering what the competition has? I don't think so. 2018-19 would've been a very different situation for this product to see the light of day.
10 cores -> 8 is a requirement if you don't want these chips to fight nV's GA102 on power consumption, and the new Xe graphics, while much more capable and powerful, need a lot more area too. There are a lot of constraints here at play.
Rocket Lake was always going to be a stopgap solution for a dead end transition platform (LGA1200). Now that 10nm is viable in some shape or form, LGA1700/Alder Lake is where you should look for Intel's real show of whatever they have had collecting dust in the labs for the 80 times 10nm got delayed.
Problem for Intel is, Rocket Lake goes up against Zen3 closing the single threaded performance gap somewhat and only that, and Alder Lake will probably enjoy some time in peace if its launch is timed right until AM5 and Zen4's release.