I think it depends on the type of project. I found the out of box experience to be super easy with Arduino. You install the IDE, plugin the board via USB and can start writing code right away.
As a full stack web developer, I am always finding myself getting bogged down in activities to support the work of development (managing dependencies, deployments, builds, etc). I don't enjoy that part of being a developer.
The experience of being able to write a few lines of C code and have stuff happen right away is very pleasant and a breath of fresh air. Unless it's necessary, I would rather not complicate things by having to deal with an OS and everything that entails.
You can get an ESP32 (Seeed Studio Xaio) Arduino-compatible board for $5 from Digikey. Incredibly cheap for hobby-scale projects!
As a full stack web developer, I am always finding myself getting bogged down in activities to support the work of development (managing dependencies, deployments, builds, etc). I don't enjoy that part of being a developer.
The experience of being able to write a few lines of C code and have stuff happen right away is very pleasant and a breath of fresh air. Unless it's necessary, I would rather not complicate things by having to deal with an OS and everything that entails.
You can get an ESP32 (Seeed Studio Xaio) Arduino-compatible board for $5 from Digikey. Incredibly cheap for hobby-scale projects!