I think it's pretty cost competitive for new hardware but used thin clients can certainly beat it for the price for most home hosting use cases.

There are somethings and scenarios where a PI clearly wins out though.

I use a RPI4 in my Tesla because it can be powered by a USB C port. I can't do that with a i3 that I know of.

Trying out new distros and software is super easy and intuitive because you just swap out sd cards.

It even has a android image that works pretty good .

It's just some of the best supported Linux hardware you can get.

Almost no other device has as many people running the same hardware in the same configuration so things are gonna just work in a way that isn't possible on most PCs