It was basically a distro optimized for Intel processors so I think that's all there is to it

It's a long bow to draw, but you could argue that AMD contributed to killing Clear Linux by taking back a lot of market share (particularly in the lucrative server market), forcing Intel to make big budget cuts, which included Clear Linux.

In reality, Intel's problems are largely self-inflicted. However, I don't think they'd be in as much trouble as they are if AMD wasn't also in such a strong competitive position.

Maybe AMD CPUs move further ahead as Intel loses optimisations on Linux

Its approach to the /etc dir was great. I haven't used it but read the documentation. Basically, all software come with default config files in /usr/lib/config or some directory like that. You create a config file in /etc only if you want to override some defaults, and if you want to reset all configuration you simply delete all files in /etc. I think it is a great system. Removes the clutter from among the user created config files and enables one to make an etc-files repo and keep track of system configuration via git, just like people do with their dot files and user configuration. But other than that, I had no reason to try it.