There was at least one NUC with a full GPIO header set. The DE3815TYKHE. I've done motor control, I2C and sensor IO with it and it was rock solid on that little NUC.

There was also the UP Board which was an Atom SOC with PI compatible GPIO. I believe that's still in production?!

Oh wow that's the first I'm seeing that, looks like it's still available though a bit pricey for over 1 GB of memory.

https://up-shop.org/up-board-series.html

Then again that is severely dated, the Atom was a very capable processor... when it launched, almost a decade ago.

Wow, I never knew they had x86 boards like this. The fact that its x86 is a huge deal itself in itself, due to more software/distro compatibility.

That's a easy problem to solve - https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264

There are other cheaper boards for USB to GPIO out here as well.

It solves it, as much as adding a trailer to your sports car solves your problem of not having a pickup truck. It works, but it's very inconvenient.

Eventually those boards run into limitations and then you have to just opt to go with serial to a microcontroller which misses the entire point of having a SBC.

I agree that its not the ideal solution. Still would be better to use a SBC like the Raspberry Pi or other boards. But was just pointing out that if GPIO needed to interface with slower hardware like relay boards or sensors , then there is an option.

If you want the GPIO, that's a good reason to go Pi. Nothing equal to the software support inside the raspberry pi eco system for it's embedded controls.

If you want a small PC for media/homelab server/cheap desktop, they don't make any real sense anymore.