> can you pull in customers from other segments to buy a NUC instead
I've never understood the hype for NUCs for non-office settings. You can make SFF builds that are tiny and still fit giant GPUs like the RTX 3090 /4090, say less for something like a 4080 Super. And then you can upgrade the GPU and (woe is you) CPU later on. Although a high-end X3D will easily last you 2-3 GPU generations.
Versatility. They're well-suited for a lot of environments where a normal desktop or laptop aren't.
They're great shop computers, for example. It fits anywhere, it doesn't wreck your energy bill if you leave it on all the time, and the nicer ones have juuust enough oomph to load up 3D CAD files or whatever else you might need.
You could fit a NUC in a pair of cargo shorts, FWIW. Or many bicycle under-seat bags, which was nice for biking to school without needing any backpack. They were in a sort of… qualitatively smaller size class than laptops.
I've never understood the hype for NUCs for non-office settings. You can make SFF builds that are tiny and still fit giant GPUs like the RTX 3090 /4090, say less for something like a 4080 Super. And then you can upgrade the GPU and (woe is you) CPU later on. Although a high-end X3D will easily last you 2-3 GPU generations.