Either adapt or use a specific modular cable to get the 16-pin connector, not that big a deal. It certainly will be what they use on the founder's cards. The AIB partners will probably stick with 8-pins on their in-house designs.
"Adapt"? If you mean those Nvidia adapters, many of them are melting, and even catching fire, besides being pretty bulky. As well, AIB partners ARE using the Gen 5 16 pin (12+4) connector, which is why it's important to have a PSU, or at the very least a PSU brand that has promised to send out Intel Gen 5 connector equipped cables for free to their customers who have bought 1000W or more PSUs from them that can handle the 4090. That Intel connector is the only PCI-E connector that can handle sustained 600W loads by itself, so no, it IS a big deal, and people paying for high end rigs don't want to and shouldn't have to risk a fire in their PC because Nvidia is too irresponsible to either have a proper adapter made and tested, or better yet, wait until PSU manufacturers get some ATX 3 Gen 5 equipped PSUs on the market.
As far as Intel's 16 Pin connectors failing, I suspect that would more likely be a PSU that can't handle the load, as Intel makes very good connectors and tests them well.
Btw, call this a coincidence but I just got a digital code/gift card which I can redeem on STEAM to grab this title. But the game is already on sale, 80% discount for a limited time though. The game reviews are very positive, and I might play this title now.
The main gripes about Absolution, which came mostly from Hitman fanboys whom are rather stuffy, is the need to do hat tipping even when wearing a disguise. The way it works is you have X amount of time you can tilt your head down, so you have to time it right. The reasoning for this game design is they didn't want to make disguises like God mode, and it's not really a stretch that a crew, be it security, tech, etc, would know and recognize the faces of their coworkers. It's a feature that got bashed far too much, and is not hard to use really. The Hitman forums anymore are flooded with players that just love to talk endlessly about various ways to kill, achievements, and ANY% speedruns that use ridiculous methods to trick the braindead AI in their new series, like shooting a silenced pistol at a wall or ceiling to cause several guards to flock to the spot the bullet hit.
I'll always give IO Interactive credit for titles like Absolution, and Blood Money, but with this new series they have sold out to gimmicks to impress fanboys.
Regarding the build spec, no, it's not easy for me to afford. I was planning on waiting for a RTX 4080, and hoping for a price drop to $700, but when I saw it's releasing at $1200, I gave up on that. MANY others feel the same way, that the 4080, even with 16GB VRAM, is not worth anywhere near $1200. This and EVGA having stopped making GPUs, is a big part of why the 4090s sold out so fast.
I'm not even sure yet how I will buy the parts for this build, and it will have to be done over time. For now it's not much more than a wish list that will involve a lot of sacrifices, and with the state of a lot of game releases these days, I'm not even sure it's worth it.
I'm hardly what you'd call wealthy either. My vehicle is a 40 year old truck that is basic transportation for grocery shopping, and gaming is what I spend most of my money on. I live in a fairly low rent neighborhood too. I'm sure for you, maybe music, instruments, whatever, might be your biggest passion, for me, it's gaming.
BTW, regarding Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection, just after installing it to make room for other games, they released patch 1.3 that supposedly fixes performance issues. The problem is, feedback on it is both good and bad, probably mostly bad.