[smcl]

Regarding the max-performance-out-of-the-box, unfortunately you're mistaken. Part of the reason people could often get insane overclocks out of their hardware was that AMD and Intel would periodically produce a higher than expected number of processors that could handle a greater clock speeds. And rather than cutting prices on those parts they'd simply configure and sell them as a lower-spec'd part - so back in the day AXIA core Athlons may have been sold at 1GHz, but would often comfortably hit 1.33GHz and beyond[0]. This still happens to this day[1], nothing's different about that.

Whether you're comfortable going down this unsupported/warranty-breaking route is another story, but it's certainly not the case that all processors nowadays are sold at their peak possible performance out of the box.

[0] = https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/186-axia-overclocking

[1] = https://www.anandtech.com/show/16857/overclocking-with-intel...