ELI5: Why are SBCs nowhere to be found?

https://lemmynsfw.com/post/341432

ELI5: Why are SBCs nowhere to be found? - Lemmy NSFW

Been looking for RPI4 CMs for ages now and they’ve been sold out for as long as I can remember. Same with full size RPI4s and some Odroids. Is this just the new normal or are SBCs and CMs going to show up on the market again at some point?

I don’t get why people want these for self-hosting. They’re meant for GPIO and automation control. They’re massively underpowered.

Just use an actual SBC and leave these for electronics.

They’re great for low strength, dedicated platforms instead of using something with more muscle like a NUC, also where a VM or container can’t be used.
Out of curiosity, what are some use cases that would fit this criteria? VMs and containers are very capable and it’s much easier to debug a failed VM than a failed piece of hardware.
I use mine to run pihole and an always-on syncthing client. Way more power-efficient than x86.