I'm certain that an ASIC wouldn't be cost effective for all but very large operations. Even if you could get it at the same price, it would massively increase t

I'm certain that an ASIC wouldn't be cost effective for all but very large operations. Even if you could get it at the same price, it would massively increase time to market, and if you need to scale production fast you're shit out of luck. Not to mention you'll probably need multiple iterations, especially if you're sticking a Bluetooth modem and a bunch of sensors in it. Using an off the shelf MCU and off the shelf sensors saves you all those headaches. Also, ESP32 is not a "pcb".