NUCs and other mini PCs are better (for the most part) anyway. Many have msata or nvme support, replaceable and expandable memory, better cooling, more powerful CPUs, and some have the ability to add in PCIe cards. Some even allow for CPU replacement/upgrades.

For lower power stuff, esp32s are where it's at.

I'm not sure what the usefulness of using a raspberry pi is, anymore. If you have something that you don't want to suck power, ESP32s have you covered and will always use less power than a rpi. If you need a bit more performance, a mini PC will almost always outperform a rpi.