Midrange cards subsidize the higher end cards because they are often chips that were meant to be a tier or two higher but didn't pass QC at those performance le

Midrange cards subsidize the higher end cards because they are often chips that were meant to be a tier or two higher but didn't pass QC at those performance levels. If you take a price hit on that, your entire fab/process is less profitable overall because you're not able to recover as much revenue from less than ideal yield. Intel competing in the midrange is far from a nothingburger.