That obviously depends on the requirements and priorities.
with the "small PCs" such as the Android called 'embedded' there is one HUGE distinction:
* a) fixed purpose embedded (what we have known and loved for decades)
* b) multi-purpose embedded (anything that can load an 'app')

for group a) there will, depending on production volume, be a weighing of develoment cost vs unit production cost, e.g. for a thing that is to be made in multi-millions you may still see some assembler.

for group b) the only concern is the 'attitude' of the users.

in this thread I must, once more, get on my soapbox, why is everybody haunting Dell and HP to be "energy efficient" when no one haunts Microsoft for forcing PCs to use more energy to have an, even acceptable, performance.

Erik