Power is polynomial (it goes with the square of frequency), not exponential.

How is this a problem? It just looks that they didn't try to improve the general architecture but make one step to ramp up the clock speeds without increasing the power consumption thanks to the process step. Which is a great achievement, because any tape out on a new advanced process - here for the first time a "3nm" - is a big achievement. One has to consider that Apple now has yearly updates in its processor lineup. The next step will probably introduce more architectural changes. Only if those would stop showing up for several years in a row I would get concerned.

With each recent node step, you basically get +10-15% clockspeed or -30% power consumption. They just blew their entire node on a small clockspeed ramp.

Now, if they want a wider core for M4, that means more transistors and more heat. They are then forced to: not go wider, decrease max clockspeed, hold max clockspeed for a pitiful amount of time, or increase power consumption.

On the whole, I'd rather have a wider core and lower clockspeeds then turn the other power savings into either battery life or a few more E-cores.