Intel made great improvements with but it is still hit or miss with Arc and yes Nvidia is still the best option if RT is a priority for you especially at the high end, maybe AMD is a good option at the mid to low end I honestly don't know
I don't have the numbers but n educated guess says for raytracing performance, the 7900 XTX is around the level of a 4070, at most 4070 Ti, so I would guess no matter what price point someone buys at, a 40 series is the only option for raytracing. I do know for a fact that the 4060 beats the 7600 in all raytacing performance.
From all the reviews I watched for the 7900 XTX and 4070 Ti back when they were released you are right it is a little bit behind a 3090 Ti which is if I remember correctly on par with the 4070 Ti in RT excluding the cases where it out preform it due to the VRAM advantages so yeah I think you are right the 40 series is the go to for RT not to mention DLSS>FSR you will most likely use it if you gonna turn on RT