Yes, you are absolutely right. Why should I expect Radeon to be better but expecting it to be priced cheaper than Nvidia? It's not a budget card.
But maybe I should have made a clearer statement. Nvidia has been getting away with charging an arm and leg for their cards lately, ever since Radeon started losing the race.
But the advent of 5700XT broke Nvidia aggressive pricing mentality. 5700XT came out of nowhere with affordable pricing and powerful performance. And things have been better with the 6900XT and 6950XT giving a serious run for the money for the 3090. Suddenly the 3090 day-1 purchasers looked like being swindled. (Let's also not forget AMD was a bit overzealous for a while with the CPU pricings once, too.)
Hence, I was expecting the 7800XT and 7900XT would also give the 4090 and 4080 a run for their money too, while delivering a blow-by-blow performance.
Edit: I have the Sapphire Pulse 5700 XT.