Those Xeons only make sense if you're able to make very good use of AVX-512 or if you're bureaucratically prevented from buying AMD. They aren't a disaster to the extent that Cannonlake was, but it's still a product that has trouble standing on its merits and is shipping in part because Intel couldn't have cancelled it and told customers to wait for Sapphire Rapids without facing a shareholder lawsuit for lying about the viability of their roadmap.
You're moving the goalposts. After being delayed numerous times and the first parts being of rather questionable usefulness, Intel's 10nm process is doing fine now and shipping in volume. Noone claimed that they had closed the gap to AMD with the 10nm Xeons, only that they're shipping. (They also significantly narrowed the gap, but it remains quite large).
