> People were clearly willing to pay 100x more just for familiarity and the ecosystem

This is obviously logical. If I know how to program in Python or JS but not C and am familiar with SSH, I can do something with a SBC in a few minutes.

I get paid $200/hr. If I spent even one hour to learn what I need to deal with a microcontroller, the time cost is four times the cost of materials if I stick with what I know.

How many small projects do I need to do in my free time before it's financially smart to learn a whole new technology?

With LLMs, it's potentially a lot easier to use microcontrollers now, depending on how widely available the documentation is now.