Why are we so quick to call it deception? Their figure is quite clear. They aren't fiddling with the graph or hiding the labels, they are clearly stating which models it compares against. But I agree on the sentiment that the standard practice should be to bench against the latest SOTA models.

Even if openly stated, why would they be comparing to a previous generation if not for deception?

Laziness? Lack of time? It's not like the latest generation of the SOTA models were released yesterday.