Hulk,
you are mistaken here. They fully detailed the Intel 4 process at IEDM. You must have missed it. It's a full node jump, in terms of performance equal to going from 14nm to 10nm. We're losing on the traditional density gains, but still significant.
Here's one article:
https://fuse.wikichip.org/news/6720/a-look-at-intel-4-process-technology/
Meteorlake shows the shrink is between 30-40%. Since Meteorlake does have core changes(however minute it may be), 40%(or 1.67x) density gain is what we're seeing now. That is a proper shrink.
They are saying 2x is possible but talking about things as depopulating the fins to do so. 2x might be possible if they forego the transistor performance improvements and focus on density.
Also, we know the Intel 3 is a much minor change. Thus the smaller number changes. The big one is 20A, hence the big name change again. There is logic here even though lot has been lost compared to a decade ago(not like Samsung calling 3 similar nodes way different names for example).
Another thing is shrinks offer capacitance reduction for power reduction for transistor. For example while the original 10nm wasn't faster, it still offered power reduction. + like the 14nm and 10nm variants can't do that(at least in a major way). Sure the transistor is higher performance, but the way to lower power without significant changes is by lowering the voltage, which is not something you can always do as modern CPUs are very close to the threshold where transistors operate.
Capacitance reduction on node changes offer the power reduction without needing to temper with voltages. Intel 4 does that. Intel 10SF, ESF, 7 does not.
Another way of thinking is +, SF, ESF, Intel 7 is like Raptor Cove. Slight changes. Intel 4 is like Sunny/Golden/Lion Cove. Big changes that encompass important parts of the core.