By this point in time, intel is bound to suprise us when they release the ARC, no matter how well it performs or how good the drivers are. Just the fact that they released the thing, instead of talking about it, will be a shock in itself. What's the last GPU that was talked about for 4 damn years, straight? 3dfx Rampage? Bitboys Oy whatsamacalled it? PowerVR3? (well, at least that one got released, as the monumentally unimpressive Kyro).
And I find it funny how people wonder whether intel will have "an i740 failure in their hands" with ARC. i740 was actually rather good for the dirt-cheap price it went for. It was bad as a cutting edge 3D accelerator, but it was not all that bad for such a cheap card. If intel released an RX570-performing part with mediocre drivers, at 100 bucks, today, that would be i740 for 2022.