This is exactly how IBM mainframes are priced (or were, for many years, not sure if it still works like this). A 12-CPU and 16-CPU machine are exactly the same,

This is exactly how IBM mainframes are priced (or were, for many years, not sure if it still works like this). A 12-CPU and 16-CPU machine are exactly the same, just with more cores enabled in the latter case. If you buy an upgrade from IBM, they don't send you a new machine, just send someone round to turn the other CPUs on.