For folks with 128GB inference machines that's definitely the more interesting model. 27B is dog slow on a Strix Halo. And, while Qwen 3.8 Flash is quite snug in 128GB at four bits (a bit more comfortably at three bits, but intelligence is really dropping by then) but is notably faster than the dense model. It thinks a little less and thinks a little faster, adding up to a real improvement. At four bits, it feels a little bit smarter than 27B even at eight.

If someone has one or two 32GB GPUs with decent bandwidth (faster than the Strix Halo or DGX Spark), the dense model is the obviously better choice, and I think that case is more common for the average developer.