Interesting, to me that seems like a downside having external Wifi/BT over SPI

It could be an advantage if the rp2040 had a decent low power mode - then you could only turn on the wifi when you need it (eg data upload every few hours) and run for a year on battery. Alas it doesn't...

I think the main advantage (to some, in the current geopolitical climate) is that it's not Chinese.

Not being based out of China is good yeah.

The ESP series can disable wifi/bt entirely if needed, their low power sleep is pretty good. IIRC someone got a year or more out of a single 18650 cell doing very slow updates.