> Has this always been the case compared to contemporary Qualcomm/Exynos/etc. SoCs?

Yes, that's my understanding. I've seen this discussion last year and the year before. And every time the answer seems to be caches. Cache memory is expensive. Apple seems willing to pay more for the SoC in order to have an overall experience that lets them get away with the high prices.

From what I read, Qualcomm would not be able to sell at volume an equivalently performant SoC.