Absolutely Intel can trim a lot and refocus on their core stuff like AMD did. But, they're absolutely not doing that. They're pouring money into developing their own GPU, they're pouring money into storage developments, they're pouring money into cellular modems, they're pouring money into developing a new packaging of chips, they're pouring money into a lot of other places. That isn't going to change, even if they find someone that realizes its good to have an actual plan and to work to execute it instead of just throwing money at any and all computing/tech ideas. That stuff is all already draining their resources, with so far little to really show for it (except for SSD storage, I was more pointing to Optane/3D Xpoint), and they've had a history of failure in most of those areas in the past, which used to be fine, but now they're facing the most intense competition in their core business they've ever faced (strong AMD, strong alternative in ARM, and GPUs, and other specialized chips are starting to take over servers).
Even Jim Keller was apparently brought in to be very forward looking and figure out the next phase of server stuff, which maybe that is just aligning a lot of their development (CPU, GPU, storage, and networking definitely will be integral to that), but it gave me more of a "figure out what direction to take servers in" because Intel doesn't really have a plan there, and while they can follow similar steps that AMD did, that's only going to take things so far (which is true for AMD as well), so Intel isn't really looking to get lean and mean (quite the opposite, I think they're looking at how to maintain their 800lb gorilla position).
Intel's ability to overcome the physics of developing semiconductor production processes is causing them problems (it is the whole industry, but Intel went from having a very clear advantage that couldn't be overcome simply by smart chip design, to having all the same problems the rest of the industry is, while the rest of the industry has also been upping their capital investment in those competing manufacturing companies).
It definitely will be interesting, but I think you're grossly overestimating if you think that Intel could get lean and mean quickly, or that they have any interest in doing that. I'm seeing the total opposite. I am seeing that Intel realizes that they've been unfocused and languished even their core markets and its opened things for competitors. But they're also actively seeking out markets with heavy hitting incumbents that act like Intel has acted in their core business, and its not going to be easy to overcome that. On top of that, some of their best customers/partners are making moves that has to make Intel wonder what that means for them (Microsoft moving to get full Windows support on ARM, Apple designing their own chips which is causing more companies to start looking to ARM for even laptops). Its going to be a challenge and that's if they can ditch the mentality that they've far too often resorted to (paying companies to use their stuff instead of competitors).
I'm actually trying to think of any time that Intel has faced comparable competition. Maybe the early 90s when there were lots of competing stuff for workstations and most specialized markets (game consoles, etc), while Intel was busy carving out Windows as its dominant platform. They lost out on that similar situation to ARM (and Apple) with Android and now even Windows is moving to more serious ARM support. They're dominant in servers, but that's a changing market. Laptops look like they're moving towards ARM (not that it'll be overnight, and Intel should still do well for years there, assuming they don't get setback worse than the rest of the industry in process tech). We'll see how their new GPU fares, but they're up against strong competition there. Their cellular modems I have a hunch will be more about buoying the x86-64 market (meaning this way it doesn't give ARM chips a clear advantage in networking), or maybe they'll look into pairing servers with network infrastructure for things that need lower latency or would alleviate network issues elsewhere.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying doom and gloom for Intel at all. I'm just pointing out that they're facing a very different competitive landscape, and that Intel doesn't seem to have any intention of going lean and mean while doing so. I think the biggest challenge will be that Intel is going to be facing a lot more hostile shareholders too as they deal with these problems, so will the business side of things enable their engineering teams to leverage their technology as best as they can.