yes, intel is milking the cash cow. sandy bridge was amazing, the 2500k is by far the best performance for price ratio we have ever seen, and that was 2 and a half years ago. still nothing amd offers can touch a 2500k, 3570/4670 still stuggle to get to 4.8ghz, which i believe 95%+ of every 2500k can get to without struggle. a 4.8ghz 2500k will match performance of a 4.5ghz 4670k. if you needed the extra hyper threads, there was 2600/2700k, but for 20% more performance at 50-70% more price.
since then, intel hasn't even tried to push performance up. at that price and performance level, they knew amd wouldn't catch up for many years and still hasn't. but it IS kinda price gouging. but for me amd is doing great in the apu sector where the future of computing is, look at ps4/xbox one. even the A10 apus are amazing and nothing intel offers comes close.