Intel's faster ramp of 10nm data center products is going to be a critical component in fending off AMD's 7nm EPYC Rome processors that arrive early next year. Even with a shorter gap between Intel's desktop and data center processors, AMD has a relatively large window it can exploit with 7nm processors.
This is all assuming, too, that Intel's first generation 10nm is actually tangibly better than the now extremely mature 14nm process. We saw a few years ago that Intel's first commercially available 14nm CPUs were inferior in raw clock speeds and power efficiency to products on the mature 22nm node. Even a year later the 14nm Broadwell-E chips couldn't clock as high as the 22nm Haswell-E CPUs with matching core counts. That latter example likely has more to do with heat dissipation and density than raw silicone performance/efficiency. Nevertheless, the point remains that it wasn't until Skylake that we actually saw meaningful node-related efficiency and clock speed improvements in consumer products.
There seems to be this assumption (not necessarily from Toms - more referring to the comment-sphere here) that when Intel finally releases 10nm we'll see meaningful performance improvements from Intel and they'll be ready to "compete" again. That's far from a given though! The 14nm process is so mature now and significantly better than it was at release. If 10nm folllows a similar trajectory we shouldn't be at all surprised if we have to wait until 2nd generation 10nm before we see parts that have equivalent (let alone better!) performance characteristics to the now mature 14nm products.
Of course, the 7nm process AMD is relying on is also unknown at this point, but the fabs are spruiking sizeable performance gains with 7nm. Interesting times for sure.