I actually prefer the Exynos phones to anything Qualcomm -- even if they don't always win in a head to head performance comparison, it's close enough that for a phone I really don't notice a difference, and the Exynos will usually get better battery life in my experience. The Exynos ones are also the only ones that get custom ROMs anymore, if, you know, that's something you care about, which I know for you specifically it's not, but it's a nice way to extend their life past official Samsung support.
Frankly, on the subject of Qualcomm, I personally think Microsoft's stubborn insistence on continuing their exclusivity deal with them for Windows on ARM is going to be what kills the whole effort. They have a half decent translation layer now, something the Surface RT disaster sorely lacked, and yes it could use some improvement but the foundation is solid is my point -- but Qualcomm will absolutely bury them in the long run, because the only Windows for ARM devices you see are things trying (and failing) to compete in the top end of the market for top-end prices. Not a single one of these things will ever outrun a contemporary Apple M-chip, and I think it's folly for them to try. No, I think they'd have been better off offering an image that'd run on just about anything and let the market fill in bottom-up. Anyone can get a mediocre MediaTek SoC and make a cheap laptop that nonetheless still does about anything you'd want, say, a Chromebook to do, and get insane battery life while they're at it.
That said, yeah, this is a lukewarm mid-cycle refresh to try and get some mileage out of the AI trend. I'm not really loving it. Sorry to derail.