> RPis are small computers with simple GPIO meant for turning on and off things, Maybe you didn't mean this in a way to diminish how handy Raspberry Pis are, b

> RPis are small computers with simple GPIO meant for turning on and off things, Maybe you didn't mean this in a way to diminish how handy Raspberry Pis are, but I've used it in tons of situations that are more interesting than turning LEDs on and off. It being a usable computer is icing on the cake. I have RPis for all kinds of things: Home Assistant using the Bluetooth module (+ external Z-wave/Zigbee controller via USB), OpenJVS for running arcade I/O emulation (GPIO for serial communication), I doubt I need to explain how useful it is to have a FlashROM setup, I've gotten a Pi to drive a Commodore SID... I can see based on the RPi Pico which seems to have similar functionality to the Beagleboard in terms of I/O that in fact there is so much more that COULD be done, and I'm glad that we have these now. That said, I don't want people to think that RPi is a toy! Having a moderately powerful small form factor computer connected to all of this I/O lets you do things that you couldn't even when GPIO is involved. Not to mention, you can bitbang the GPIO really fast on a Raspberry Pi, which can come in handy.