Well, true all that. Except, my non-technical parents won't be buying any more PCs. They can do everything they want on their ipad. And I'm pretty sure they don't want media editors, compilers or complex spreadsheet editors either.
Having GPIO pins to play with also helps with the learning. The Boca Raton model of computing device was a bit stifling for homebrew hardware extension because of having to accommodate the de facto standards of the IBM PC/AT model (RS232 serial, Centronics parallel, CGA/EGA/VGA display, DIN5/PS2 kybd/mouse) to get a hackable connection going.