They did the same thing back in the days of AMD K6 ... fast integer ops, poor floating point. Then AMD Athlon came, built on the same foundation and Intel never knew what hit them.
Don't dismiss Bulldozer just yet. AMD has this uncanny ability to make short term compromises that benefit them in the long term.
I worry that you're saying they have "this uncanny ability" on the basis of one instance where they've done it. The other possibility would be that they just got lucky once (helped by Intel's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad P4 design) and haven't had similar luck success before or since.
Don't dismiss Bulldozer just yet. AMD has this uncanny ability to make short term compromises that benefit them in the long term.