The carousel on the top of a results page is only for AMP pages, so yes, they're absolutely prioritized.
But also, why are you so sure they're not prioritized in the rest of the results? It's very difficult to prove a negative here, and I personally don't trust anything google has said publicly on the matter.
I don't know about ranking, but they do put them at the top of the page. And when you use google with JS enabled all AMP results will be pre-loaded in the background.
AMP pages aren't faster. They just feel faster when you go through google search and the hidden background pre-load.
Ranking is effectively higher placement on the page, and the AMP links carousel is the highest on the page. The outcome is the same, regardless of methodology.
Indeed, when Google claims they don't favor AMP pages, they're being disingenuous. Just like suggestions that you can't pay them for higher rankings: You absolutely can, because Google Ads go on top, and they're barely distinguishable from native results.
