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Have you seen something to suggest they are aiming to reduce Q factor for gains? Many people already have shoe rub on their cranks, I don't think these pedals are aiming at reducing the Q factor, just stack height.
They're probably also more aero by having such integration with the shoe.
PhilDAS-
Velo magazine says "The French brand claim the pedals, called the PW8, offer as much as an 8 Watt saving versus competitor’s pedals, owing to their unusually low stack height of just 8mm." https://velo.outsideonline.com/news/pre-race-uci-ban-on-prototype-ekoi-pedals-leaves-riders-floundering-for-new-shoes/
nick_h.
There's a sweet spot of efficiency with regards to Q-factor (a proxy for the distance between the middle of the feet).
Imagine an inverse bathtub curve with the x-axis being the distance between the feet and y-axis being bio-mechanical efficiency.
Taking one extreme; if your feet are right next to each other (effectively impossible given a frame's geometry) then efficiency is not at its highest. Efficiency (and therefore power delivery) will increase as you move the feet further apart.
At the other end, if your feet are on pedals that are 5ft apart, its going to be hard to get some meaningful power into the pedals. As you move the pedals closer together (from 5ft apart) things will get better.
Those two things imply there is a sweet spot (or spots) in the middle of those extremes where biomechanical efficiency is greatest.
The theory is that the sweet spot for efficiency is closer together than existing bottom-brackets/cranks/spindles/cleats can get you to.
This design looks to get the feet closer together given existing bottom-bracket/crank solutions and therefore should provide more efficiency. So for the same rider effort/work they see more power going through the pedals/cranks/chain/transmission/etc.