The hardware itself was never particularity novel. The strength was in the software, support, and community which made the barrier to entry low and learning new skills easy.

It used to be $30. That's why it goy popular. Broligarchs ruined that along with everything else too.

and yet here we are, using a meme depicting a wife abusing piece of shit.

I thought we all agreed two years go to let this meme die because Steven Chowder (a well-known grifter) is the guy in the photo.

I digress; how old are you OP? Do you remember when the Pi first launched? As everyone else already pointed out, it was revolutionary for its time.

Edit: And yes I spelled his name incorrectly on purpose; fuck him

The Pi was revolutionary when it first came out, there had never been a device with its combination of small size, compute capability and low price before. But over time other devices have caught up if not exceeded the Pi's capabilities and it no longer stands out in any particular way.

Because of its documentation, community and software ecosystem. That makes it especially a good entry point for beginners. At least it was when prices were still acceptable.

I got a couple Pi Zeros for $5 each. For years they both have been significantly contributing to my quality of life by blocking ads on two networks with Pi Hole software.

the Pi was never the important thing. the community around it was always the big draw. that community inspired a whole generation of DIYers and people interested in STEM. the impact of the Pi is understated, if anything, because that community branched out to other devices and tech.

It used to have its use cases and still can if you can get one cheap. I bought a 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 last year for €35. It runs Home Assistant and Pi-hole. I prefer it over leaving my media server running all day since it uses vastly less power.

Overrated? No.
Overpriced? Yes.

I agree that it is overrated, but I do also think that it still has value and is legitimately pretty cool. It's nice that it's so tiny and cheap and easy to set up in like under an hour. Low power consumption for simple things that are nice to run all the time makes it feel pretty friendly on the environment versus running a whole desktop computer or server 24-7.

Yet, like many things that are really good, there ends up being a lot of people who want to sing its praises from the heavens as being not just really good, but the greatest thing ever. And so indeed the Pi is also overrated despite being really cool

Yes, you do wonder. Glad I could answer that for you.

I think the original affordability with the addition ready made projects and easy accessibility made it really stand out in peoples minds.

Kinda. I'm self-hosting on a computer that, if it were a human child, would be in third grade. Didn't need to buy a Pi with worse specs to do the same job at twice the hassle.

I just started with my new project, a table top retro arcade machine. Using a raspi 5 is the best I can get now, even overpriced. The prices are through the roof for thin clients or mini PC so my planning shiftet to raspi again.

If you have another suggestion I am open for it. I should be capable to run under Batocera and emulate up to Gen 6.

isn't that some bad dude or sth ... i heard rumors

I'd be all about those things if you could buy 20 of them for 50 bucks.

Get a new meme format, or I'm going to continue to assume you like Steven Crowder and are, in fact, an ignorant bigoted crybaby nepo-turd.