Holy shit (sorry)! You really know your stuff, or at the very least, I don’t know my stuff! I’ll keep in mind the stuff you said about the ESP32 and the ATMEGA, but I was more so referring to the editions of those dev boards that use the RP2040!
After reading a bit more, it seems that pretty much the only difference is the IO and other supporting hardware besides just the chips. If someone (me) were working on a project where solutions like these particularly-powerful microcontrollers are required, when would it make more sense to use one of these pre-made boards for computing rather than making your own PCB designs including the chip? Is it mostly for projects where extremely compact form factors (and/or other shenanigans) aren’t necessary?