The 4080/4090 are outliers of the generation though unfortunately, and also are themselves still a rather typical generational gain at that.
Most of the rest of the 40xx stack was either unexpectedly slow or unexpectedly expensive (or both), such that performance per dollar stayed flat or regressed
Ah that makes sense. I don't pay close enough attention to the mid tier or the low end. I'm sure I saw at some point that there were problems with those cards but it's hard to remember when it doesn't stand out because people are negative about every GPU.
Most of the rest of the 40xx stack was either unexpectedly slow or unexpectedly expensive (or both), such that performance per dollar stayed flat or regressed