I'm currently building a passively cooled laptop Ryzen server with 32gb DDR4 RAM for less money. It is, like, TEN TIMES more powerful, and draws maybe 3x of Pi power consumption in peak loads, and is just as quiet and out of the way. Oh, and 1tb SSD is included in price calculations.

Times make us get creative with the tools we have.

Pi also wins in size, if space really is limited. But yes you're right, in many use cases an old normal computer makes more sense. Bit fewer e-trash also...

Agreed, at this point, they're capitalising as much as they can off of their reputation.

it’s legitimately time to start treating the used/refurbished market as the new standard.

true

How big of a difference is the power draw?

Buddy. I am running a seven camera Frigate system with a Thinkpad X230t (2012). That is the ultimate thicc-pad with a chunky rotatable,foldable touchscreen, from 2012. Obsolete, but not on eBay, Google tpu USB dongle. Total system cost to me <$300 bucks. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention it runs my Home Assistant, Lyryion music server and Tailscale. I have a sneaky suspicion that thing is going to last for a couple more decades. It is Military grade hardware. Look it up. And if you walk into my kitchen. There's a HA dashboard and control pane on it. It's a touchscreen after all. You can even click the stylus/pen out of the side if your hands are greasy. There's a recipes navigator/editor (Zim wiki) on the desktop. I don't know. I personally think it is as stylish of a kitchen appliance as you can find. I guess it depends on your sensibilities.