If they have been binning and saving the top 1% that can hit 4.5ghz...then they can charge 399$ for it.
That makes financial sense to me.
I think there is a fundamental logic issue with binning parts for months into the future, and inventorying them (wasted money) until releasing them at some future date when they are worth less money(more wasted money).
If you have higher performance chips, logically you release them now when their selling premium is going to be higher, and you don't have sit on them in inventory for months, paying inventory costs.
If you wait for Intel to release it's 8 core part, they steal your thunder, and they price you can charge will be less.
You lose in multiple ways with that "strategy":
1: Lower selling price.
2: Lower marketing impact in the shadow of Intel's release.
3: Inventory carrying costs.
4: Time value of money losses (You could be earning returns on the money if you had it now, or pay down debt early, and reduce your debt costs).
So no, this does not make financial sense to me.
In tech, not every product gets a response. In fact most don't. Companies deliver products that are at the end of LONG release cycles. Marketing can have responses, in the form of pricing, bundling, advertising campaigns, but products don't really answer other products at the HW level that much.
I expect no HW "response". Eventually there will be a 7nm Ryzen, but it isn't a "response", just AMD executing long standing plans.
The Marketing response will likely highlight AMD price performance, include some minor price shifting, and maybe a 12 core TR/MB combo deal that comes close to 9900K/MB pricing.