It's not cherry-picking if you say it's up to, and depending on what you game the most, that could be your case. Next, there are zero titles where 3700X is faster, zero and also, unlike the 9600k, 9700k always leads in the minimum framerates as well, often even exceeding the 9900k. Furthermore, for gaming focused builds, the so called general cpu performance is of limited value and for what other tasks will be done on a gaming build (generally mostly browsing), 9700k will be no slower. It's also more power efficient at lighter loads and only overtakes 3700X in consumption in heavily threaded tasks, in gaming tests show very similar numbers. Then, due to the shortages of Zen2 chips, they are oftenplace sold above MSRP, while 9700k's price has been lowered in several places to as little as 329$, yes it doesn't have a cooler but ideally, one will want to upgrade the one on 3700X as well. And lastly, considering there will be just one more series of chips on the AM4 platform and all the leaks and rumors so far suggest it will only be a small, incremental upgrade over Zen2 similar to Zen -> Zen+, even 4000 chips will likely only match the i7 in games at best, meaning that a more modern platform is also a non-argument for gaming. Once again, for a gaming-only or at least mostly build, the 9700k is currently (still) the best choice and as several others have pointed out, quite a few reviewers have said the same thing.
