The Point of PI is not the computer - it’s the GPIO, camera kit, infrared camera, various HATs, such as gps or motor control. It’s for making a camera that opens a door when it detects a cat, or puts more food when birds eat all the food in a feeder.
The point of the pi was for teaching computer science in educational settings.
Of course it largely failed at that (imagine running a lab full of raspberry pi 1 model b with the original full-size sd card and phone usb chargers) but everything else is a retcon/product pivot. It wasn’t invented for hacker anything.
It’s not best for being a server in a closet