Well I wasn't going to pontificate but since it appears I may have triggered this discussion I'll give myself an illusory license. With the backdrop of someone who is probably the least qualified on this list and someone who did their first x86 centos install just a few years ago. I started playing around with arm maybe a little over a year ago as a result I had to seriously bang my head and also have the persistence to work through the pain. Eventually I got everything I wanted to work and am grateful because my knowledge and understanding has tremendously improved. But....
Last week for the first time I installed centos on a arm machine, specifically machiatobin, using a vanilla iso file. The installation was just like on a x86 system and went without a hitch. All of the headache, custom hand crafted human supervised work, gone, poof, no longer required. To me its a game changer.
So without stepping on anyone's toes and after reading Mr. Masters blurb on APCI etc. linked in the beginning of this thread. I find that at first blush it may be worded in a way where it seems to be a ultimatum or antagonistic towards users of centos on arm hardware (i.e. this list). However, I see it more as a message to the hardware folks - that they need to make sure their hardware works with centos and not the other way around. So that we can (emphasis added) seamlessly install centos onto arm hardware and so that we can (emphasis added) run yum install foobar. Not to mention the security and stability/bug implications on the eco system.
I will humbly disagree with the big vs small/embedded argument as what is big or powerful vs what is not is relative, and as we all know these things progress quickly. Nonetheless, you can install centos on a x86 Asus Vivostick, which isn't exactly a power house so why not the same for arm. If it works it works. Furthermore, consistency across platforms will also ideally allow for a single workflow across those platforms.
Absolutely if I have a choice I will go with hardware that makes my workflow easy, consistent and reliable. If I don't have a choice then it just raises the cost of development, to some that doesn't matter to others it shuts them out.
I think I echo what others have already said but then again does original thought really exist or is it collective? I think in the future processors will be liquid and made out of engineered solutions (the liquidy kind).