If you look at a specific price point, Intel did virtually nothing different here with Skylake. Take the ~$1k chip for example (it is the one of the easiest to compare since Intel has been producing it for a decade).
*snip*
Every 3 to 4 years, Intel has added 2 cores to this ~$1k chip. The base clock is generally in the lower 3 GHz range. The cache has moved around a bit, generally getting bigger, but not always. They did the exact same with Skylake-X, added a couple cores every 3 to 4 years, just like they have been doing like clockwork.
I just don't see a massive change here. Not compared to how much they were usually changing it. What they did do was add more price points, some with less features than before and some with more features. But they started doing that in 2016 with the introduction of a new ~$1700 price point.
Announced Skylake-X lineup, price per core:
6 cores -> $65
8 cores -> $74
10 cores ->
$100 <- $1000 threshold
12 cores ->
$100
14 cores ->
$100
16 cores ->
$106
18 cores ->
$111
Even if we factor in unavoidable max clock drops for high core count SKUs (hence performance increase is definitely not linear), in what world has Intel charged nearly the same price per/core for their biggest consumer chips?
Let's look at Broadwel-E
6 cores -> $72
6 cores /w higher clocks ->
$103
8 cores ->
$136 <- $1000 threshold
10 cores ->
$172 <- this is how high end pricing looks like
Let's check Haswell-E
6 cores -> $65
6 cores /w higher clocks ->
$97
8 cores ->
$125
In the past it was crystal clear - moar cores demanded a hefty premium, with vigorous jumps of $30 per core. In the present, once you reach that infamous $1k threshold Intel's pricing enters cardiac arrest and all we get is a near flatline response.
Now, I'm not from the side of this forum that believes the AMD fairy brought kindness and happiness in the silicon world while essentially forcing that Intel witch to rebuild the children's candy playing ground, but I do recognize a forced smile when I see it, and Intel is definitely trying hard to smile at us.
The only area where their pricing looks strange is the jump between 8 > 10 cores, and I bet this is where the pressure valve is, in case there's any pressure to speak of.