Polaris was NEVER intended to go against GP104. It was from day one a mainstream product. Just because AMD elected to launch its mainstream product before it high end product, does not mean it has a problem. High end cards are a small part of the market, AMD prefers to hit the largest part of the market first.
I will agree that just because AMD doesn't put out the fastest card first isn't a problem in and of itself. The problem is if AMD never catches up- ie it doesn't launch a card that can beat a 1080 until after the 1080 ti/Titan X2 is released, or it never launches a card that beats a 1080 ti until after the 1180 comes.
Without a true halo product AMD will not be able to undo the marketshare position Maxwell put them in. It isn't enough to beat Nvidia at its chosen price segment, heck AMD has dominated value in the sub $300 segment for years now only for a crappy GTX 960 to eat their lunch. Eventually AMD needs to dominate
period if they are gonna change consumer perception which is needed to sell more of those $200 cards.
Or maybe AMD has given up, I don't know. If I was them I would be more focused on making sure Sony has AMD in their next console, or that Apple has AMD in the next MacBook Pro, than trying to convince all those GTX 970 owners to wait for Volta instead of buying a 1070 as soon as they can. At some point it you have to be practical.