Thanks for offering some real-world experience.
I think you hit on a real issue in the HA world. I stumbled across HA when I was looking for an excuse to try out the (then) inexpensive RPi. Back then, HA development, support and documentation was all geared toward running on that platform.
Fast forward to today, and if you even mention the RPi in a post here, there’s a good chance you’ll start a long dialog with people who insist that’s nowhere near enough horsepower, and you should go out and buy a [insert much more powerful and expensive device here.]
Of course, there are lots of wonderful things HA can do if you throw enough time, money, processor, storage and memory at it. But I sometimes wonder if we’ve lost the focus on the basics. I really don’t need streaming audio or video, an AI voice assistant, or a massive database of everything my HA system ever recorded. I suspect I’m in the minority these days.