Aren't quantum processors essentially special purpose accelerators, where most of the computation is still done on a classical computer? Shor's algorithm at least looks that way.

Quantum computers can't do anything useful and will likely not be able to for quite a while.

> Is the struggle for microprocessor supremacy still even relevant?

Absolutely. Today, it's not about performance, but about performance/watt. Simply using a web browser is a huge power drain.

Even if that wasn't the case, getting rid of the "Intel dependency" and the "x86 premium" would make sense from a business standpoint.

x86 is a free/open isa. The patents are expired up to i486 and x86_64 patents should expire soon. A guy from Oracle not too long ago implement i186 in Verilog as a hobby project. At least we know that if Intel ever gets too authoritarian, we can do that for i386.

>who's going to build the best quantum processor?

Nobody. Besides quantum processors are not general purpose, and as thus, they're of no real consequence for the kind of computing 99% of people do...