Another lens for the paid professional photographer, this time field sports shooters.
Can this market really be worth more than the forgotten middle of amateurs, currently awaiting some equivalent of Sony’s 200–600mm zoom or Nikon’s Fresnel lens (DO, in Canon-speak) telephoto primes? I suspect it really isn’t, but those people don’t have the ear of Canon’s sales department in the way the professional photographers do.
I'm sure Canon knows that the paid professional market has contracted dramatically and continues to do so, particularly for sports/journalism. Canon's RF lineup seems to split the market into the amateur/consumer level and the enthusiast/pro level, with the latter being mainly driven by wealthy non-professional photographers.
Consider that in this range there's already the RF 100-400 and that's an excellent and inexpensive lens with no counterpart in other manufacturer's lineups. On the other end of the focal range, there's the RF 15-30, also a very good lens with no counterpart. Everyone has cheap and expensive standard and short tele zooms, as well as professional-level standard and short telezooms for enthusiasts and professional wedding/portrait photographers. Canon is innovating with UWA and long telezoom lenses costing $500-600 and that's a big win for the amateur market. The 600/11 and 800/11 fall into a similar category and are also very good lenses costing under $1000, with nothing like them from anyone but Canon. All of those lenses are aimed at the 'middle of amateurs' who want to go beyond a camera and kit lens but can't afford $3000 lenses much less $10000 lenses.
At the higher end for long lenses, Canon seems to be focusing on wealthy amateurs/enthusiasts with incomes sufficient to support an expensive hobby. Time will tell if that's the right choice in the current market, but history suggests that Canon thoroughly understands the camera market and how to succeed in it.