Disappointing from team red.  It looks like intel will release 3 generations in the time between Zen 3 and Zen 4.   It will have to be truly special to keep up.   They are only now finishing the 5000 series with budget options 18mo after the initial release and after they have already become obsolete.  They need to figure out how to get the pace back or they will be handing the crown back to intel.

I want to build a zen 4 system on AM5 this year and setup for flight Sims.
Looking for the forward compatability of the new socket, pcie 5.0 and DDR5.
If they delay the launch longer...
I'll probably build an Intel system and sacrifice forward compatability.
AMD seems to be dragging this out as long as possible.
Releasing new processors every 1.5 years is stretching it long enough. Pushing it to 2 years is frankly unacceptable against a company releasing new generations every 10-12 months and is currently beating your performance.
These stop gap chips aren't going to cut it.

Probably more optimization going on after knowing performance gains of raptorlake.

Nonsense. AMD isn't slowing down. Zen 4 is a big generational leap on a new platform and a new TSMC process. Which needs a lot of validation. AMD said that the time until Zen 5 will be shorter.

Unless they know zen 4 beat s raptor Lake, its too late. AMD slowed down waybyoo much after Zen 3, they are trailing.

Some new Zen 3 SKUs doesn't mean anything for Zen 4. Zen 2 XT refresh came out just some months before Zen 3.

Mass production usually starts 3-4 months before launch. Which means if there is still no mass production in May then a July-August launch is very unlikely. Until then there's no reason to worry.