the first quad core i3 was the i3 8300. Maybe by 16th gen, it will have 6 cores.
use to only be i3/i5/i7 until 9th gen released i9 desktop (7th gen for the prosumer), so with that shift up in the product stack that puts i3 closer to old pentium and celeron territory. Agree with others, will get e-cores before it gets more P cores.
Clean product strategy to keep i3 as the quad cores of old, i5 6 cores, i7 8 cores, little room for i9 differentiation (more e-cores). I9 containing the same P core count as an i7, but they are bought for the better binning and turbo, the extra e-cores may be useful but outside of rendering on my 13900, I wish I would have saved a bit of cash and just went with a 13700.
If low power performance is improved on 14th gen, I will sideways upgrade to either a 14700/14900 early next year. Otherwise I'll keep rocking my 13900 till arrow/lunar lake. Too bad meteorlake larger dies are absent and we have to do yet another refresh, which much prefer the boost of performance per watt that should bring.