Haven't the Max/Ultra type chips always come much later, close to when the next number of standard chips came out? M2 Max was not available when M2 launched, for example.
I'd also point out that there was a rather awkward situation with M1/M2 chips where lower end devices were getting newer chips before the higher end devices. For example, the 14 and 16-inch MacBooks Pro didn't get a M2 series chip until about 6 months after the 13 and 15-inch MacBooks Air. This left some professionals and power users frustrated.
The M3 Ultra might perform as well as the M4 Max - I haven't seen benchmarks yet - but the newer series is in the higher end devices which is what most people expect.
