CPU frequency most certainly is relevant, especially given chips that overclock to roughly the same frequency. AMD putting the 8350 @ 4ghz is their attempt to hotrod the chip as much as possible, whereas the 2600k @ 3.4ghz is a very very conservative effort on Intel's part. You're arguing the MT performance of an architecture, which you simply cannot do without discussing frequencies.
You're looking at the .1% of time that Piledriver beats two year old i7 tech and calling it a win. Bulldozer and Piledriver are both poor implementations of a great idea.
Any CPU benches of higher mhz are irrelevant eh? Who's a fanboi, the guy who points out the one thing bulldozer has going for it, or the guy who says it doesn't count? Overclocking isn't the be all end all. Lots of people who value stability and data integrity do not overclock. Yes, base frequencies do count.