If you want to compare the expensive factor, at least use some kind of cost to compare like the price of a used phone etc or the cost of a basic server to see how they differ.
Perhaps not in the first world reality you live in, where you can buy a rpi 4 for a couple of bucks. But in third world countries they aren't readily available, and usually the imported prices exceed that of a decent PC.
You can find an old used phone for almost half the price that is still good enough for many daily processing tasks.
> You can just as well say why use an expensive PI when I have an old computer with a 1680ti and 12 gigs of ram.
That is a logical fallacy. A high end PC and an old used phone that you can buy in Ebay are in entirely different price ranges.
> Like yeah okay but what does that have to do with Pi? Entirely different device classes imo
Entirely different device classes, yeah, but both can execute the very same functions. The difference is one is much cheaper and you get 2x the processing power than the "more specialized" other. You can use both as local llm, serv ers, home automation... and even GPIO if you expose some wires from the phone.
2. Again, "cheaper" is a valid qualifier if you compare costs. Phones vrs pi is not what I am talking about, free vrs second hand (not free) is what I am talking about. Something cannot be cheaper than free so comparing costs is kind of weird.
Sorry for any offense this semantic may have caused.