20% is not exactly "almost" the same, ask your employer to raise your salary by 20% and explain him that it s almost the same...
Yeah, I too do not get the "embarrassing" quip given that regardless the time frame involved (be it 6 months or 6 years) the fact is AMD is the second and only other company to produce a product that is capable of performing at that level.
This whole notion that a product is worthless, or the company and its employees are rubbish, if it (they) come in second place on the basis of arbitrary metrics (be it years until reaching performance parity, or power consumption, or performance per core, or performance per clock, or performance per dollar, etc) is really quite a needless stance to take on the debate.
Show me the results from the third runner-up, and then we can debate the relevance of the second-place holder. If all you got is a first and second place then it is time to simply be thankful that there is a even second-place contender in the first place.