A
huge chunk of the value of an RPI is the ecosystem & support. The actual hardware in & of itself is consistently mediocre to poor for the price these days.
I think RPI is starting to lose sight of that with the Pi 5 and especially the 16gb models. It's starting to just be expensive and the better support for an ARM SBC starts losing a lot of value when it's butting up against x86 mini-pcs like the large number of N100-based options at around the $150 price point[1]. They aren't really any less efficient, and x86 software support is still consistently better than ARM software support.
1: eg https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Intel-N100-Computer-Desktop-D... - $170 for a complete unit w/ 16GB RAM & 500GB SSD.
I think RPI is starting to lose sight of that with the Pi 5 and especially the 16gb models. It's starting to just be expensive and the better support for an ARM SBC starts losing a lot of value when it's butting up against x86 mini-pcs like the large number of N100-based options at around the $150 price point[1]. They aren't really any less efficient, and x86 software support is still consistently better than ARM software support.
1: eg https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Intel-N100-Computer-Desktop-D... - $170 for a complete unit w/ 16GB RAM & 500GB SSD.