This was a stand in halo product whilst waiting for Navi. They needed something to show, and it is very clear they didn't want to do this given they got rid of a guy for trying to release it to start with... but then did so anyway. It is the pinnacle of what can be achieved on Vega right now, and no doubt further drivers will make it better. However... I don't expect the product life to be very long, or them to produce very many. This is AMD's P4, and they are trying to make it work until they can get another architecture out the door.
For the gentleman/lady who won't buy an upcoming Ryzen chip because of this graphics card release, and it being hot and power hungry.... you are about to do the same thing with your intel purchase. Hot and power hungry and performs worse than 'likely' competition. Think about it. Buy what makes sense IMO, not what you feel good. Why get less performance for more money, when the clearly better 3xxx series will be the smarter choice (unless AMD manage to completely hose things).