I'm not sure why these results are surprising. I'm going to guess due to the way it was framed by the reviewer. If you do actual games, then high clock fewer core chips do win.
Real games rarely use more than 4 cores effectively, there are only a few exceptions - like Ashes.
What this review actually shows is how real games rely on IPC and clock speed, while synthetics like 3DMark rely on threads. This and earlier reviews on the i3-9350K throw into question the usefulness of synthetics for anything other than GPU tests.
Add in that 3/4 the reviewers seem to be unaware that this i3 is this AMD chips direct competitor, and instead compare them to high core / high thread CPUs.
This is some kind of cognitive bias. In December 2019 Tom's says the i3-9350K is 'too little too late'. Then in May 2020 they say the 3300x is 'just what gamers need'.... It looks to me like these merely prove that games are not actually all that reliant on multiple threads.
4 very fast cores is what they need.
I'll leave ya'll with this, from Tom's, from December :
The 3300X in
synthetics, it gets repeatedly pounded by the 3600 and 7700K, and even the 1600:
View attachment 154315
Now some
real games with the 3300X vs 9350KF :
View attachment 154316
View attachment 154318