Yes, that's my point. The M1 Pro is also 5nm, would you say that the M1 losing badly to the M3 means 3nm is way better than 5nm? No, the architectural differences mean that trying to derive or compare performance characteristics of the underlying lithographic process is mostly difficult or totally pointless. It doesn't matter whether you use the M1 or the M2 as the baseline. You need to use the same design to understand the lithographic differences, and these aren't the same designs. It's only one small part of the equation.

So going back to your original question, I think the reason people compare the M1 vs the M3, and not M2 vs M3, has nothing to do with making 3nm "look good" or whatever. The reason is more mundane: it's because that's what people would probably upgrade from. Because of all the differences, the only way to know whether an upgrade is worth it is to do workload comparisons, not one-to-one architectural/litho comparisons.