In general, the pi SoM usually offer 8 to 12 year availability maps, and haven't pulled price ballooning after launch. If you are producing less than 1k pcs a

In general, the pi SoM usually offer 8 to 12 year availability maps, and haven't pulled price ballooning after launch. If you are producing less than 1k pcs a month, than it certainly makes sense for smaller design runs. That being said, it is probably safer to eat the cost on the standard 0.1" ribbon cable header form-factor if you plan to run the line for a few years. The compute-modules have a tendency to change, and the micro-contact headers could be a failure point in some situations. Also, hardening the Pi design to be more reliable takes extensive testing, and experience. Compared to other SoM manufacturers the Raspberry Pi foundation has a good reputation in both the open source community, and commercial roles. The pi4/5 FCC modular pre-compliance also saves around 11k USD when you go for lab testing. Also, pushing pi SoM production volumes higher means lower unit costs for everyone, and a double win is always nice. If you don't need the gpio, than a mini PC form factor may offer more value. There is also the Kria KR260 kits around, but it will not offer anywhere near the software/kernel ecosystem support of the pi community. Best of luck, =3