The mainstream CPUs are not challenging the HEDT CPUs!
HEDT comes with loads more PCIe lanes and often that is the deciding factor.
Indeed, the only reason I buy HEDT is because of the extremely low number of PCIe lanes on mainstream CPUs. If they came with 28+ lanes I'd never have bought HEDT, which might have saved me 10's of thousands of Adollars.
How many people have actual need for those extra PCIe lanes though? The motherboard chipset makes 16 additional lanes available as well, albeit with the connection to the CPU limited to x4. So a standard Ryzen 3000 or 5000 desktop processor on an x570 motherboard will provide 20 lanes direct from the CPU, plus another 4 lanes that get split into 16 by the chipset to provide flexible connectivity options. But these are 4.0 lanes, so each provides double the bandwidth of a 3.0 lane, and can be split accordingly. I don't see that many use-cases today where the number of lanes would be a significant restriction. If someone were in fact spending "tens of thousands of dollars" for access to more lanes, I would hope they would have enough of a professional need for that extra connectivity that it would pay for itself over time.
Really, I think the market for HEDT processors in general has become a lot more niche in recent years, as the more mainstream desktop platforms have shifted to cover most of that territory. When a standard, relatively low-cost motherboard offers support for 16-core, 32-thread processors with a reasonable amount of fast lanes for connectivity, few are likely to need anything more unless they have some specific professional need for it.
I get that it’s a small market, but between the scalper pricing and then AMD staying they’ll only be making the Pro versions going forward, and only provifing them to OEMs leaves a really bad taste in my mouth and makes me unlikely to consider AMD in the future. Not an Intel fanboy by any means, but at least they’re actually interested in selling me their products.
Are they though? Has Intel been providing a competing product with comparable specs and pricing? If not, then they are apparently even less interested in selling you their product. : P
I don't believe AMD ever officially stated that they will only be making pro versions going forward either, or that the Pro versions will only ever be made available to OEMs. The 5000-series Threadripper Pros just launched a couple months back, so it's too early to say for sure. It could simply be that they are waiting for Zen4-based Threadrippers with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 to be ready first, as DDR4 and PCIe 4.0 isn't exactly marketable for an "extreme enthusiast" platform now that faster options are becoming available on more mainstream platforms.