>the average computing device is turning into an appliance (is it a bad thing?)

Yes, for those of us who mostly want the appliance, but sometimes want to tweak it. I don't want to have to build a system from the ground up to get my desired experience if it's 98% the same as the appliance would have been out of the box; I'd much rather start from the appliance and just change the 2%.

At the same time, when I think "appliance" I think something like a toaster. Push down the lever and the wire gets hot. Dead simple, nothing hidden or artifically withheld from the user. But that's not what modern appliances look like; we're getting ever closer to the future described in "Unauthorized Bread".

As Strong Bad might say, we have too much appliance in our computers, and too much computer in our appliances.

The problem is these new DIY platforms don't have the kind of reach that mobile or even desktop computing has. Even 30 years ago you had people buying PCs by the droves for all sorts of general-purpose tasks. Raspberry Pis and such are great for a lot of niche use cases but you don't have people buying them as a GP computing platform.

Not yet.

I know of one company that has a few "desktops" that are Pi4 and I've seen loads of them powering "active terminals" - like in-store menu and office status screens. Gotta start somewhere. Special case and move towards general case (some call it crossing the chasm)