You seem to be ignoring that the hypothetical alternative would be a market with prices with downward flexibility, such that rather than gambling on unsupported

You seem to be ignoring that the hypothetical alternative would be a market with prices with downward flexibility, such that rather than gambling on unsupported hacks, you could instead get more cores for your money just by waiting for later in the product cycle. A 4-core chip with two fuzed off at $300 and a 4-core chip with two licensed off at $300 are definitely not equivalent options to be comparing, because in a market with no artificial product crippling Intel's price sheet would have to change. The fact that artificially crippling chips is not new does not mean it's a good thing. Having accepted a tradeoff doesn't erase its downsides.