>What you lament is that so many of our "PC" systems seem to have wasted processing potential

That's not my lament. I don't care at all about not wasting processing power.

I care about the fact that it's so difficult for people to use their existing computers in ways that were not intended by their manufacturers, that even technically adept people will just buy a new computer rather than deal with it.

It should be easy to install some new software on any of your computers (router or desktop or TV or phone or whatever) and have it do some useful new thing. But it's not.