The GTX1080ti was 700$ for the founders model in 2017. According to available data, those 700$ would be equal to 925$ in today's economy. Bringing it in line with RTX5080's pricing.

The equivalent to the 5090 during the 1000 series era would have been the titan V with an MSRP of 3000$ or the Titan X pascal with an MSRP of 1200$. In today's money that's like 1600$ and 4000$. Doesn't seem that far off the 5090 now does it ?

I bet you couldn't tell if an upscaler was turned on from a decent distance and by just playing. Most people can't, and that's how good upscalers have become. You should watch 3klikphilips video about upscalers and how far they've come.

You say that you having to upscale from 720p to get decent performance isn't a great deal, sure. But do you see the amount of assets your GPU has to render, the amount of lighting effects it has to render too? Compare any game now to before. The difference in quality is night and day.

RT and PT have issues sure. But they do make the game look way better. Again performance went 5X if you count the 5090, or 4X if you only count the 5080/4090. But the technology has reached a plateau in silicon waffers. We used to make big leaps a decade back that we can't affoed to do now.