In point of fact, the Alder Lake laptop SoCs also came with a max configuration of 6P + 8E. So, it's not actually a regression on core-count.
The way Intel delivered laptops with 8P cores was by repurposing desktop dies, which is their typical H/HX playbook. Because the S (i.e. desktop) version of Meteor Lake was cancelled, that explains why there's no 8P option for laptops.
As far as IPC, Crestmont did deliver improvements on that front. They say Redwood Cove was a "tock", and therefore didn't involve substantial design changes. Thus, any performance advantages would pretty much have to come from the node, but they claim they focused on efficiency, instead. I can attest to the fact that Alder Lake notebooks did indeed seem to suffer from an efficiency problem, just going by the terrible battery life of my work laptop.
Intel's own numbers make Arrow Lake sound pretty weak, in terms of P-core IPC gains.
If you look at the "(1-copy)" graphs, the Arrow Lake P-cores improve over Gen 13 Raptor Lake by only 4-8% (int) and 3-6% (fp) at ISO-power. So, that includes both IPC
and clock speed. Remember they're comparing an Intel 7 vs. Intel 20A! That might be easier to take for one generation/node, but across two... definitely underwhelming.
15%? When did we ever get that? I can't think of a time between Sandybridge and Alder Lake that delivered even double-digit single-threaded improvements.
Because Gen 14 is
literally the same dies we had before! The only thing they actually refreshed was the product packaging!
Intel didn't even bother to make a separate internal product category for them. If you look at ark.intel.com, the Gen 13 and Gen 14 (desktop) CPUs are all listed under Raptor Lake.