noone1:

458 Speciale was competitive against the 650S Spider on Corsas, I believe, so not really competitive when you consider one is hardcore version and the other was just a regular convertible.

Normally, I would agree with that statement, but, the 650s was such a massive change compared to the 12c, that it might as well have been a facelift, like the 488 is to the 458. The 12c had an additional update that resulted in the 12c (625hp) version.  That could have been saved for the hardcore version of 12c, instead of jumping straight to a facelift because you're so upset that your rival is more loved than you.

The 720s, is even more a massive change that its a brand new car, so i don't really think its fair to compare a brand new car to the facelift of its rivals.  But, this will be a nice way to see how well ferrari can engineer the hardcore version of the 488 to compete with the 720s, especially if the 720s is going to be faster than the 675LT...which should have been the rival of the 488 hardcore variant.