Especially the "streamlined" programming, with the wealth of existing modules for all kind of peripherals make it incredibly easy to prototype most things. In that regard, it's also a very good replacement for the "parallel printer port" to which most hobbyists used to attach their simple peripherals in the old days.
And for the crowd that needs everything a little "less dumbed down", you get eval-boards for selected 8- and 32bit MCUs for so little money... on which then you can run your handcrafted assembler code to your heart's content.
Now, if we could only get the FPGA world away from their ugly proprietary synthesis tools...
Especially the "streamlined" programming, with the wealth of existing modules for all kind of peripherals make it incredibly easy to prototype most things. In that regard, it's also a very good replacement for the "parallel printer port" to which most hobbyists used to attach their simple peripherals in the old days.
And for the crowd that needs everything a little "less dumbed down", you get eval-boards for selected 8- and 32bit MCUs for so little money... on which then you can run your handcrafted assembler code to your heart's content.
Now, if we could only get the FPGA world away from their ugly proprietary synthesis tools...