LGA1151 has some significant limitations (eg: PCIe and memory bandwidth), I am certain that Intel did not make this decision lightly. Z370 are quite different from Z270 and this will cause confusion for many.

Perhaps Intel is banking on the Z370 chipsets being the Intel equivalent of AMD's AM4 -- a chipset that sees support until the introduction of DDR5 memory. Nonetheless, the Z270 chipset being unceremoniously EOL'd is an unpleasant occurrence for many (including ODMs).

To answer your question -- it is most definitely not a drop-in replacement. While they may use the same socket, they are not interchangeable.

> Perhaps Intel is banking on the Z370 chipsets being the Intel equivalent of AMD's AM4 -- a chipset that sees support until the introduction of DDR5 memory.

Hah, you wish. It's already been leaked [1] that next year's 8 core desktop CPUs will require a yet another chipset - the Z390.

[1] https://www.custompcreview.com/news/intel-chipset-roadmap-re...

Well then, this is troublesome.

Hopefully AMD's next-gen chipsets (ie: the AM4 4xx chipsets) maintain backwards compatibility with current-gen CPUs.

While AMD has been straight-forward about current-gen chipsets (ie: the AM4 3xx chipsets, A320/B350/X370) supporting all manner of AM4-compatible CPUs until AM4 is EOL'd, it is not yet clear whether next-gen AM4 motherboards will support current-gen CPUs. Probably not.