To illustrate a real-world example of a "pro" use-case: these devices are absolute monsters at processing video. How much memory do you need to edit 4k video? The answer is likely "how much have you got?"
The editing process for the average YouTube ‘content creator’ may consist of previewing a bunch of effects and transitions and animated floating text in real time until they think they’ve hit the right viral load but in practice professional editing is still done by the composition of edit lists from preview material.
Hmmm... "decades and decades" seems like a stretch for digital. ;)
Are you meaning using things like Avid Composer and similar? eg software used for hollywood films and similar
Asking because I used to spec out then put those systems together for places. They were _very_ much pushing the envelope of performance (cpu, ram, disk io), even before networked editing systems became common.