What I can never grasp is, why is there such an obsession with it in the first place? Nobody would keep saying things like this if they weren't hoping for it to be true.
I think part of the obsession is one we know either first- or second-hand: the allure of the New Shiney. Another piece is self-interest. Fame, fortune, even religious cults may form around the person able to accurately predict that which has a direct bearing on the welfare of the group. I'd guess this second piece is only slightly diminished in present times from what it was in antiquity, if at all. Besides, look at how fun and useful small, portable computers are (whether called smartphones, androids, etc.)
You may have heard, as I once did, that initially no one could think of a use for a personal computer. Why would one want one? Until one engineer said he thought his mother would use one to store her recipes on.
There's nothing stopping one of them from competing in the PC market though. Compatibility between platforms is easier now than it has been at any other time in gaming history.
Or is PC just not seen as being worth the trouble because a PC can't follow you around during your day and spam you with ads?
I'll always be a fan of full sized keyboards and detest texting, but I'm an admitted old guy. Do you have an ad-blocker installed on your PC, Tim? Yeah, i thought so. Me too. BTW, I'm not trying to take away from what you're saying. Humans do a lot of things that strictly speaking aren't rational but make sense anyway, such as falling in love. (I'll leave it to others to find better examples.)