a number of reasons -- power budget, form factor, experimenting as a testbed for more "elaborate" setups (like robotics combined with a low-end TPU like the coral, or a jetson nano)
consider that you can take advantage of all the cloud-native goodies, all wrapped up in a 10x5 box with 5-10W (or 25-30W if you consider jetson boards).
consider that you can take advantage of all the cloud-native goodies, all wrapped up in a 10x5 box with 5-10W (or 25-30W if you consider jetson boards).