I think the lack of fanfare is mostly due to the fact that these are mostly upgrades of the specs/reduction of price of existing products: the form factor stays

I think the lack of fanfare is mostly due to the fact that these are mostly upgrades of the specs/reduction of price of existing products: the form factor stays the same so there's no real point in making it a big event if there wasn't anything else to announce otherwise. They have been doing that for many years, always more or less quietly. The thing is that people still talk about it anyway...