But, your all E core idea is a good idea for certain use cases. That is why Intel is pursuing that idea with Sierra Forest with rumors of 128 E cores.
It doesn't have to be 1.25x the area, because if they are designing a new SoC with all E cores, things can be moved around to optimize for it. Right now I bet you there's a fair bit of empty space cause you are trying to fit differently sized rectangles into a one large rectangle.
Also Sierra Forest with Intel 3 in 2024 is definitely going above 128 E cores. I'm expecting 256 or even more. If we're expecting Granite Rapids to be at least 120 cores, then 120 E cores on the same node is kinda underwhelming. By pure ratio of core sizes, we should expect something like 384 cores.
Crestmont is probably going to outperform Sunny Cove in perf/clock and it's something they'll need to go against 2024 competition.
So PMICs are being used because they are smaller than capacitors? Or relatively cheaper?
Beancounters. That's it.
All this talk about being more reliable hasn't resulted in anything more reliable because they take more reliable components and use it to save on costs instead. So you end up being the same, or even worse than before.
Case in point when I bought a broken e-bike to fix. I noticed the MOSFETs for the power controller short circuited. The datasheets showed 56V for the maximum, while the battery is rated 44V, or 12 LiPo cells. Well, when fully charged, the 12 LiPo cells would reach 51.2V, dangerously close to the
absolute maximum rating of the MOSFET.
I bet over time it got degraded to the point where it went down to 51V. We're talking about an e-bike that would have cost $3,000+ US when new.
20 years ago, they didn't design it that way. Sure the technology improved but the mindset went the opposite. Most prevalent among Chinese vendors, but rest of the world adopts it to compete.
Same with SSDs using "no moving and reliable parts" but they turn it around to save on cost.
Also the faux green movement doesn't help. Lead-free solder is brittle, unlike leaded solder. And they can create solder whiskers, and short out components over time.
If they were really being "green" they would make it more repairable, and make things like laptops more modular. Companies like Apple penalized repair shops for years now.