The new and upgraded Framework Laptop

That's because Intel uses the E/P cores differently ARM chips usually try to use E cores primarily for saving battery, so they only use P cores when performance is necessary. But Intel uses E cores to allow for higher multi core performance while staying in their power budget and the available die space.

i5s get the same amount of P cores as i7s, so their general application performance is pretty similar. But then if they compile/render something the many small E cores make the CPU faster without melting the system down...

The thermals are also why Intel 11th [1] gen had a maximum of 8 cores, while Intel 10th [2] gen had a maximum of 10. AMD pushed forward with their up to 16 cores and because of how good their performance per watt is, they could cool them. Intel noticed with 10th gen that they couldn't achieve high enough clock speeds with so many cores.

[1] https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/... [2] https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/...