PRU aside, BeagleBoards/Bones mount eMMC memory which offers much higher reliability compared to microSD cards. RPis are great for tinkering and prototyping, but I wouldn't feel safe employing them where uptime is important.
Agreed there, I've seen horrible reliability on (micro)SD cards for these little project boards. For RPi, usually use SSD over USB for primary boot, there are some nice case options for this, if you don't mind the space.
Over the pandemic, started using more of the mini intel boxes in the sub-$300 space, just because of availability and price gouging.
