I think the best thing about Intel's offering is that they are trying to pitch the value proposition. The cards aren't amazing, the drivers are hit and miss, but every few weeks I see a new update posted bringing the cards closer and closer to parity with the more expensive and established brands. 10% increase one, week 15% increase another; 110% increase was the latest I read, although that might've been OpenCL performance.
Ultimately I hope Intel transitions their capabilities with these Arc cards into modular APU-style designs.