There’s quite a bit to unpack here.
There have been other cartridges introduced during covid which have rocketed past the 6.8 Western - hell, the 6 ARC was even LEAKED for months by its SAAMI standardization publication long before its commercial announcements, and guys were drooling to get barrels and dies made. So much so that some guys were ordering reamers before the commercial launch! Covid isn’t a good excuse.
Yes, the 7 PRC is being introduced as a new member to a 4yr old case family (which already had rebranded themselves from their parent cartridge) - but it’s false to claim it’s entering steep competition from the RSAUM’s or blocked by existing 7mm cartridges. Why do we have so much “saturation” in the 7mm market? Or the 30cal market? When the 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC came out, folks said the 6.5 PRC wouldn’t make it because it couldn’t keep up with the 7 mags, and because it didn’t have enough quality heavy weight bullets available to make use of its case capacity, and folks said the 300 PRC was just another redundant round on top of over a dozen existing 30 cal magnums… yet here we are, both are kicking ass and taking names in their respective markets. All of these 7mm and 30 cal cartridges exist because PEOPLE WANT THEM!!! We had a dozen 30 cal mags before the WSM’s came out 20yrs ago, and now we have over a half dozen more since then. Of course… it is obvious that the 284win has never really enjoyed public acclaim anywhere outside of LR benchrest & some F-class shooters, which certainly don’t rule the shooting sports zeitgeist - and seem to have near zero influence on hunting cartridge preferences.
Also, don’t forget - Remington RUM and RSAUM brass has been quite difficult to source since the very beginning, has been relatively poor quality - albeit typically more consistent than the Winchester WSM supply, and naturally, nobody else has been making any of this brass except their respective mommies… oh, yeah, both of which experienced bankruptcies… so now we have a sole source RUM and RSAUM IP owner which just adopted that particular red headed stepchild, and Olin’s just doing Olin things and making **** brass to ruin its own legacy… oh wait… who else is making RUM brass with a relatively reliable supply? Hornady… nice as a manufacturer to have your cake and eat it too…
And frankly - finally - there is a massive market of folks out there buying stuff they don’t understand for a purpose they pretend to pursue, and having a “responsibly bigger” hammer than your brother-in-law, or the dude at work is always a desire of some folks. A lot of folks bought 6.5 PRC’s just because they’re bigger and faster than 6.5 creeds. A lot of those folks will buy 7 PRC’s just because they’re more powerful than 6.5 PRC’s. The 7 is not yet long enough to demand too much powder or require an over-length magazine like the 300, so there’s a specific tolerance threshold there where guys can brag on their big truck without buying a Peterbilt… There have been a million Ruger Precision Rifles sold since inception - do you think all of those folks - or even 1/3 of those folks - are shooting competitions, or even shooting long range with them? Not a chance.
So I don’t think any of those particular arguments hold water.