Totally agree....
I think that it took the high end audio guys a long time to jump on board because they didn't know about computers, and that modifying multi-function computers and optimizing them was such a daunting task so far outside their area of expertise. The proliferation of those small, more single purpose computers in the "internet of things," - (or Internet of ****), - helped.
The fundamental rule of high end audio in the past has been to isolate, separate, & simplify the "system" into separate components that are of superior quality. (No more receivers: separate the amp from the tuner, separate the integrated amp into a pre-amp and power amp).
With digital file playback, - we can't forget the importance of hardware, - and the noise issues, or signal integrity issues that come with preemptive multitasking. A computer that is great for doing 100 things, isn't going to be great for doing 1 thing: high end audio. Strip that thing down to only what is essential, and try to make those essential elements as high quality as possible.
Once people started replacing those horrible, bleeding, SMPS power supplies in PCs, or installing a 1 port USB card in the PCI bus, etc., they started realizing the same kind of SQ benefits that were realized long ago by separating analog components. Speaking for myself, these noisy USB bus mitigation devices like the Intona, Regen, iPurifier, etc, - showed/proved that a bus designed for mice, keyboards, hard drives, cameras, etc. & a lot of them, - really needed "help" or even reduced to just one port if it was going to be used as an audio carrier for SOTA playback.
It totally makes sense that there will soon be a great combo box that will perform 4 or 5 of the functions that we're using 4 boxes for now....
Cheers...