For smaller training data sizes, transformers don't have a clear advantage over CNNs. CNNs are still the way to go if you have problems that are not too complex, and especially constraints regarding inference costs. Think of a small edge device / sensor that counts apples in your apple picking machine.
What we sometimes see is that a backbone is trained using transformers, then a smaller CNN is destilled from that (DinoV3 for example).
This is really what’s happening right now… LLMs are excellent computer users. Which makes one of the frontiers “amazing things computers always could have done, but we lacked the programmers to do”.
If basically anyone can train a high quality CNN for just about any purpose now, what new opportunities appear that computers can help with?