The article implies the demand is for running locally. I’m not convinced, at least with a mac minis. Most people I know and myself buy the mini as it is always on, easy to setup, and isolated from my main computer which is a laptop. The mini is driving the use of the $20/month subscriptions.
I think you miss the point and value add. The always on computer isn’t to run the client only, it is to run all the things a user would normally. The laptop becomes a terminal for a computer that can do anything your laptop can. If you don’t have the need or desire for that, then yes, use a rpi or whatever.
In my case, I dev on macOS. The env the agent runs in is the same as my dev laptop, configured and in sync. Has access to all the same tools and environment as I would on my laptop.
