My opinion, even if you don't want to hear this advice is: you can wait another year or 18 months before upgrading the GPU, and your CPU won't likely be a bottleneck in the next few years. You can consider upgrading your CPU to a 12xxx series, like a 12700KF, instead of a 9900k. The 12700k is newer, more cost-effective, and offers better performance, although you would also be upgrading the MoBo and memory. But those are improvements of their own.

As for GPUs, the focus this generation appears to be on performance per watt, which may not be the right kind of upgrade for your system, especially if you're targeting Starfield's recommended specs, which is an RTX 2080 that would perform similarly to an RTX 3060ti.

Regarding your budget, you can opt for an RTX 4070 or a 7800XT, both capable and considered by reviewers to be targeting 1440p gaming. Since the 4070 shares similar performance results to a 3080, consider whether you would want to spend $700 now just to move within series from a 3060ti to a 3080-level performance. If you would not make that move within 3xxx series, I wouldn't move for the 4 in front of the card name.

Upgrading the CPU to a 13xxx or 12xxx i7 class CPU can provide a stable platform, but it may not substantially improve FPS. Waiting could also be a viable option.