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Keep in mind that we Americans tend to see cheaper prices than our European (or Canadian) peers by currency conversion. Converting that i3-8350K price would put it at $226, after all, not $199. Also, there's the fact that basically the MSRPs end up not mattering. The market and how gamers feel about the buys dictate deviations from those every single time, and immediately.
I agree, it's definitely a competitive space, but I think that at least the i3 has some viability as a competitor: taking the place of the i5 line. One need only look at where the i5-7600K remains as a market value (against the already released Ryzen R5 processors) to confirm that. Ryzen basically knocked only $20-30 off its typical market value.
The past few years the i3 line hasn't been a viable competitor at all. It's just been shit. The R5-1600 is definitely the more forward-looking option, particularly for overclockers, but for the moment, quad core still rules the porridge battle, and at those stock clocks and turbos (with whatever IPC gains we see) the i3-8350K should outperform the R5-1600 in pure gaming, across the gamut, even more significantly than the i5-7600K already does. So, in fact, if I had to make a prediction, if the i3-8350K debuts at an MSRP of $199, I predict we will see a rare market inflation of value. It will settle in above that price.
On the whole, though, obviously, I've been voicing this perspective since Ryzen launched, so I agree with you. The R3-1200 and R5-1600 are the best values in their spaces.
On the other hand, I don't think a ~$450 MSRP on the i7 hexacore is gonna cut it. That's the biggest price cut, by miles, and yet it's the one that won't hold up. One need only study where the i7-6800K ($320) and i7-6850K ($360) have settled in to confirm that: against the R7-1700 (~$290).
The i7-8700K is basically a +100MHz Coffee Lake update of the i7-6800K, so it should offer even less of a stock improvement over that chip than the i3-8350K does over the i5-7600K. I don't deny that the allure of an Intel-class IPC hexacore chip greatly diminishes the allure of the R7-1700, as each core beyond the fourth adds a diminishing value, but $450 just isn't going to sell. If the motherboards are cheaper than the pricey LGA 2011 boards, then that should offset the cost, but those Broadwell-E chips are the existing indication of the market value of these upcoming Coffee Lake chips.
If Intel isn't making a profit off the chips under $400, then this new i7 line could be in some real shit.
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