I am aware. But I don't program, I have no interest in hardware hackery like this, and one of the things I most like about the Pi range is that I can run OSes that are not Linux. I think two of my Pis currently run RISC OS. I could also run NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Plan 9, Windows IoT, or Inferno. I do not know of any other SBC with so many options.

I am not saying these things are not valid, but they are not unique selling points -- other Pi-style SBCs offer them too.

However, the Pi has other merits that other SBCs don't: price, range of OSes, long-term OS support, a vast range of special-purpose distros for everything from server to dedicated special-purpose client stuff.