It is an easiest way to install and configure all required toolchains on a random computers.
I've used to maintain my own set of Makefiles for AVR, and that was mostly OK because avr-gcc is in ubuntu repos, and all my computers are Ubuntu anyway.
But when I switched to ESP8266, this no longer worked, there are no nice debs with SDKs I could find. I could have created a complex set of Makefiles to download SDKs, compilers and tools.. but I switched to platformio instead to do it all for me.
This turned out to be a great idea when I later wanted to try STM8 and RP2040 - just 2 line change in ini file and you have a fully working toolchain, libraries, etc.. And the ability to easily share the programs with others and to know that they can use them even if they don't run Ubuntu is great too.
I've used to maintain my own set of Makefiles for AVR, and that was mostly OK because avr-gcc is in ubuntu repos, and all my computers are Ubuntu anyway.
But when I switched to ESP8266, this no longer worked, there are no nice debs with SDKs I could find. I could have created a complex set of Makefiles to download SDKs, compilers and tools.. but I switched to platformio instead to do it all for me.
This turned out to be a great idea when I later wanted to try STM8 and RP2040 - just 2 line change in ini file and you have a fully working toolchain, libraries, etc.. And the ability to easily share the programs with others and to know that they can use them even if they don't run Ubuntu is great too.