Part of the issue here, I think, is that cpu's are much more complex than they were then. You have a number of different cpu lines with different models on the market at any time.
But that does make the decision what CPU is best for a given use case and budget much more complex, too.
(Like I said, the impact of the CPU on overall system performance is less today than twenty years ago for many use cases, so it is not that much of a problem.)
