The goal hasn't ever been about producing a device cheaply. It's about supporting education, encouraging tinkering and changing attitudes [1]

[1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/

"...hasn't ever been..." is not true. Someone above posted an earlier statement from the archive.

Every altruistic thing is easier if you're trying to do it with a $10 product rather tham a $100 product, all else being equal

Good thing they still offer a $10 product then - the Raspberry Pi Zero.

and the RP2040! There is not much to differentiate it with ESP32 at the moment, but it's their first shot at a microcontroller.

Good value for what? They have never been good value as desktops because the early ones were too slow. Now there are better little computers.

But as hobby computer, they are still a good value. There are faster boards and cheaper boards, but which ones are good? More importantly, which ones will be supported in five years? How easy it to install software? I read about distro that promises support, but then have to check the list of hardware it supports.

I have six year old Pi 3. I can install latest 64-bit OS on it. For my plans, something small and low power is an advantage.

Hardkernel has supported their ARM boards for 10+ years. The Odroid XU3/XU4 line, for example, was released a decade ago and still has active development from the manufacturer with recent kernels and images.

I was really excited about those hardkernel boards 10 years until I got one and found I had to use their outdated custom version of Ubuntu and still half of it didn't work.

I assume things have gotten better since then but they don't have 10+ years of good support.