It isn’t, you can get SFF PCs for as little as $75 on eBay that have Quicksync CPUs and will run circles around a RPi, especially if you have to do any transcoding. They are also really power efficient… 7-20W idles.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195163970881
SBCs really should no longer be considered for selfhosting unless you are A) in an extremely power constrained environment like an off-grid RV or vanlife situation or B) clustering
You’re right, if there’s no need of GPIO. For example I’m using a Fujitsu Futro S720 that I’ve bought for about 30/40€ and it consumes about 4W idle and 10/15W maximum (I don’t really remember). My point of view is like yours: those boards are not good for self hosting, are good for IoT, digital signage and…mmm…I don’t know what else.
