My whole point was that AAA games coming out today can utilize more than the traditional one or two cores -- more than four even. I'm not sure if it applies to all games but if someone is playing a CPU-intensive game today, the most likely candidate is Warzone, and that thing can put the hurt on eight cores at once. Likely other modern FPSes do also, or will in the very near future.
The only reason to get a new CPU is to play new games, as any decent CPU can run anything older than say three years. If you're buying a CPU for today's games, more cores will tend to help at least among enthusiast CPUs. It is not good advice to forego a large fraction of cores for a small increase in single-thread performance, at least at a given price. Threadrippers are probably not needed though.
The only reason to get a new CPU is to play new games, as any decent CPU can run anything older than say three years. If you're buying a CPU for today's games, more cores will tend to help at least among enthusiast CPUs. It is not good advice to forego a large fraction of cores for a small increase in single-thread performance, at least at a given price. Threadrippers are probably not needed though.