I'd say Nvidia isn't holding back on marketing:
- The FE cards are made in small quantities using the best binned chips and using a very expensive cooler. Then sold at (or even below) cost, to allow the claim of "RTX 3080 is good price/performance".
- The testers are given cherry picked FE cards to deliver the most favourable reviews possible.
- Partner-branded cards will perform below FE and/or be sold at higher prices, making them worse price/performance.
It's the release day reviews (of the very best FE cards) that will be read for years to come, not reviews of the cards that will be available for purchase.