Man of Honour
In a world of auto variable overclocking on gpus I can see how you might say these things. However, I don't consider these cards "gimped".
People should be reading reviews before purchase and looking for purchaser feedback. I know that this might not happen in reality (like me overhearing a father asking an electronic store employee he needs something called a GTX 2080... Obviously the guy was clueless). The vast majority don't know, don't care. They think they are getting good regardless.
Because I am getting old I find it better to go into a PC store and act clueless rather than try and explain something to some young shop assistant who thinks they know it all.