While Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU is certainly a notable improvement over its previous processor, Apple appears to be cranking out new chips that result in leaps and bounds in performance improvements. The raw performance that Apple gets is also due to it custom designing its chips for its hardware.
As its executives always say, the tight integration between the company's hardware and software results in the kind of performance and experience Apple wants to provide to its customers. More companies, like Microsoft and Google, have recently adopted this idea and started to also develop their own custom chips for their products.