Like most history, things get simplified and written from the perspective of the victorious over time. If Intel wasn't a vast corporation today we would be reading about some other late-60's LSI project as the genesis of the modern era, I'm sure.
These are not general purpose CPUs as far as I can detect, they were never sold individually for other applications.
Such dedicated devices were exactly what made the 4004 so special, it was used for calculators but could also be used in other ways because it was a true general purpose CPU.
The first time I heard of the Computer history museum was when I was looking for a new credit union, and one of the ways to get a membership was to sign up for the CHM. Even though I don't use that credit union anymore, I keep renewing my yearly Computer History membership because they really are preserving parts of history that might otherwise just be lost.
Incredible article. The slow realization of what they've created as they start implementing internal projects with this "limited use" microprocessor, it reminds me very much of articles about the creation of LISP.
For example these guys : http://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/microprocessor_history.htm Interesting to read in the CHM article that Hal Feeney had worked at GI in LA. He also talks about military uses of MOS in the 60's.
Or this guy : http://firstmicroprocessor.com/documents/ap1-26-97.pdf