Actually I'm basing my opinion on market share during a period when AMD had a superior price/performance ratio at nearly every bracket, if not every bracket as well as the performance lead.
Unless AMD's goal is to not sell as many GPU's, I don't believe they achieved the goal they set out to achieve with those "gimmicks" as you so put it.
As far as Thaiti LE, the problem there of coruse is the lack of a name change. 7870, 7870 XT, it's just poor marketing, but better than 7950 Boost, or 7970 GHz which are just overclocked versions of the same card.
All I'm saying is AMD needs to create product separation, that means new names, and new products. Not same name new product, or same product new name.
Now this isn't to say Nvidia did right by the 650 Ti Boost, in fact I think it was just as silly as AMD. The only real difference is product recognition for Nvidia seems to be considerably higher, meaning all things consider AMD needs to go the extra mile compared to Nvidia.
Again, I should state it plainly, my only contention was that a 7850 GHz or Boost would not work in AMD's favor imo, based on past events.