I believe it's an Intel-managed distribution and is heavily optimised for Intel hardware. Not surprising it did so well as the tests in that article were done on an i9.
Which means most pre compiled software targets CPU’s from 10+ years ago.
ClearLinux compiles for current chips, which gains the benefit of new instruction sets.
Clear Linux OS defines its minimum hardware requirements to be second-generation Intel® microarchitecture code name Westmere (released in 2010) or later.
source: https://www.clearlinux.org/clear-linux-documentation/guides/...