Would you rather we were in a world where the 6502 was still current-generation hardware and any hillbilly with a fab in their shed could crank out a top-end CPU?

Intel's got a lock on top-end performance, but don't think for a second they're in control of the CPU market.

You can get a custom ASIC fabricated for under $10K in low volumes using process that's a generation behind. You can get things fabbed on the current process if you're willing to pay more, but it's on the order of $1-2M or so. It's not often people make new CPUs, but look at how the Bitcoin space took advantage of low ASIC prototyping and production costs to produce high-performance hashing devices.

The cost of producing a 6502 chip in that era was basically the cost of building your own foundry. Now we have places like TSMC that will make chips for anyone who can afford the tape-out costs.