but.
As soon as you start worrying about power, or GPIO, then it starts to get a bit messy.
There is still a sweetspot for the rpi. but as soon as you start wanting to do pure software, then you might want to think again. Its very much a spectrum.
7nm-10nm X86 CPUs from Intel and AMD are nearly as efficient as a R-PI, IPC for IPC, and GPIOs can be extended on them via USB in a standardized manner if desired.
Most people buy R-Pis to run linux, python, a web server or turn on some LEDs. Linux, python and web servers can be run on low power X86 machines, and LEDs can be turned on by an Arduino or R-PI 2040 microcontroller.
People stuck to using R-Pis out of comfort and inertia because it was the only thing they heard about and it was the best thing at the time when X86 was not competing in the space, but today it's no longer the only option or the best option. People need to start exploring the other options.
Again, I am designing a farming robot. We absolutely do not want to use USB for anything critical (which is pretty much everything). On our raspberry pi motherboard I’m using SPI to talk to CAN bus chips to do motor control. I’ve had so many weird control USB issues in my life I would absolutely not want to use USB for motor control!
I've been looking to replace my current intel 10watt server with a AMD ~10 watt device for a >3x performance boost, but they are all going to cost >$250.