I would not consider a7a as a rasp pi 5 alternative as much as an rk3399T alternative or a ad311 amlogic alt. They offer NPUs that can not only do vision on the NPU but LLMs. Where as the raspb pi has NO npu and costly (like very expensive) TPU m.2 addons to achieve the same perfomance the amlogic and rockchip has built in. So you will loose your small form factor and any cost effeciency of the SBC niche if usex for a.i. where as the rk3588 is prettymuch on par as my x86 with nvidia ge GPU for LLMs, just cheaper, cooler, smaller, and better libre and open support.
Rasp pi is more for those unfamiliar with the ARM small form factor single board computers who want a starting point where they have ease of finding help in forums and play with more plug and play hardware that dresses up like DIY but much more currated for beginners and inexperienced people.
If your comfortable with the basics of syntax on the commandline, your probably better with rockchip for perfomance and cost.