The main difference is the Cortex-R5 subsystem. Beaglebone, the famed predecessor, had PRUs. These features paired with a powerful Cortex-A processor are really

The main difference is the Cortex-R5 subsystem. Beaglebone, the famed predecessor, had PRUs. These features paired with a powerful Cortex-A processor are really useful if you have a complex program that needs to do something (IO/control, for example) with a very high precision time-wise. If you have high punctuality demands but a rather simple algorithm, you can simply use an Arduino or Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040). If you just have heavy load, you can use Raspberry Pi. One common use for Beaglebone was (is?) 3D printer control. As far as I am concerned, the AI acceleration in BeagleY-AI's DSP is just a fad (TI DSP itself is quite respected in the industry). I would probably say it's better to buy a Pi 4/5/Zero and one of RP2040/Arduino/micro:bit/Nucleo and master them separately, possibly with a UART/I2C/SPI link in between before moving on to a single package.