I think that's a little unfair. The focus here is on the software. Yes, the examples show it running on a pi, but they don't limit it to that. It should also be able to run on your hypothetical rugged box.
There's absolutely nothing preventing you from building your IIAB into precisely such an enclosure with such a power supply. IIAB is a set of scripts to load the software onto such a box, and they also have a cheap hardware recipe that'll get you going for the 99.9994% of situations where being sandproof is not important.
But you can use those very same scripts to install the content on your sandproof ultramachine. What's the gripe?
I should add that there is backup to another sdcard for cloning or archiving. Cost is a major criterion for most deployments that use a Raspberry Pi.
I also thought of this. What’s the max life of a device like raspberry pi? 5? 10 years? What could be the causes of their failure?
A USB booting pi should last 30+ years if it's kept out of the sun and rain.
A super hardened computer, drop proof, waterproof, weatherproof, sandproof, rated for at least 20 years of use.
No moveable parts and everything stored on PROM.
It would come with a kit to use any power source possible
That should be able to survive in remote village with no supervision required for a long time.
I did not imagine a PI with a plastic case and a standard harddrive.
Clearly the rugged one would cost magnitudes more and things like WordPress and other programs like it would not be possible on rugged version either.
I would think that as a plus not a minus.
If a village fills up a blog or some other such software with large amounts of data and the harddrive crashes its gone. Does not come with a backup as far asI can see