I thought the same thing but you are not comparing apples and apples.

If you say just price I would say pi ~$120, vs alder lake ~$190

But the most important thing the pi has is mindshare.

It is not better hardware-wise (beaglebone, banana pi, etc)

It is not better at general purpose computing or a nas or a desktop (any intel or amd machine is better)

But it is good education. You don't have to "install" linux, just put the sd card in and go.

You can learn hardware things. You can learn linux things. You have lots of company. Many people are using it at the hobby level (several million). Someone has done it and made a web page or youtube video.