I agree! I'm a computer architect, and I love playing around with FPGAs for doing 'fantasy architecture' projects (like a 16-core Z80 laptop, or a USB adapter for an old nCube supercomputer). A modern FPGA is like being able to tape out your own 350-nm chip for <$100 (and in many respects much better, when you get to make use of hard-macros like SRAM or PCIe/DDR controllers).
Probably should have written "dedicated" or the good old "application specific integrated circuit".
Either way the distance is considerable. FPGAs do allow you to do unique hardware interfacing things - good luck getting a PCI microcontroller - but even there they're catching up. The RP2040 can bitbang DVI with its peripherals.
