58% faster than the 3080 but also 70% more expensive (699$ vs 1199$), thank you mr. Huang
Once somebody convinces themselves that paying comfortably over $1k for a gpu is fine then it is probably fairly easy for plenty of those people to rationalise the extra to get a 4090 at that point, either that or stepping down to a 70 or 70ti and making a sizable saving.
Not only that. The price excess let me make another decision when buying the 4070 (non-OC): in the future, I will not exceed 200W TDP and have got a modest, passive 700W PSU accordingly. Whatever future high-end GPUs Nvidia might release, I won't care. 200W is the maximum I will accept, period. Efficient and reasonable price - or nothing.