USB4 is TB3 "compliant" isn't it?
I was recently playing around with USB4 on some AMD NUCs, trying to get thunderbolt networking to work in a mesh (3 nodes, ports each, interconnected so each had a route to the other 2).
Ultimately, the premise wouldn't have worked for what I was trying to achieve.
Regardless, I found it flakey when I was labbing it.
I found it depended on which USB was connected to the other, would often fail to initialize correctly, sometimes just turning a cable around would fix it (I know not all cables are made the same, certainly a big factor).
I've read quite a few write-ups of "it just working" on intel nucs.
And I've (now) read a lot of write-ups on AMD thunderbolt being "compliant", but not really 1st party like intel TB is.
Unfortunately, I think if TB connectivity is important to you, intel is still the way to go.
Similar with CUDA and NVidia.
Thunderbolt 3 is part of USB4. Thunderbolt 4 is separate and not supported by AMD processors yet, probably due to licensing issues. (Note that prior to USB4 this was why Thunderbolt 3 wasn't available on AMD.)
Thunderbolt 4 is separate and not supported by AMD processors yet
Thunderbolt 4 is USB4 with better performance. Nobody is stopping AMD (or anyone else) to implement the USB4 specs with TB4 speeds, they just cannot call it Thunderbolt.
its less consumers, its more on intel handling logistics better than AMD. the FAR majority of laptops being purchased are business laptops, and AMD has a prpblem where they take orders, but take several months to complete them for some customers (which means lost sales and profit) whereas Intel is usually better at handling supply when purchased.
its only (supposedly) going to flip soon as laptop oems supposedly do not like Meteor Lakes performance, and Lunar lakes major design change is going to be quite the gamble.
I'm pretty sure, nowadays institutional buyers define the market. Tons of regular people don't even have laptops (or desktops for that matter) anymore.