A lot of the people who are buying mid-range GPUs are asking their hardcore gamer friends with high-end GPUs for advice about what to buy.
If AMD isn’t competing at the high end, they are missing out on a very valuable funnel for mid-range GPUs
AMD has no 4090-killer, so their entire range is always seen as second-best, even for the customers who should be asking "what's the best choice AT MY SPECIFIC BUDGET".
I suspect that's half the reason Intel runs their top-spec SKUs at such absurd wattages-- they've got to own the top slot for the enthusiast-gamers, even if it's a tiny shard of the total market.
I'm sort of intrigued how this will work out for Intel's GPUs long-term. They have no claims of trying to chase the top market, and people were buying the A-series cards in significant part because they were what was available during Covid/Crypto GPU crushes.