More or less the only benefit you got from Edison was being x86.
...and Intel missed the point that x86 without the rest of the PC isn't that great. I suspect if the Edison was actually PC-compatible (to the point of e.g. being able to boot DOS and older Windows and run their applications) it would've had far more popularity (retro-gaming, etc.) than yet-another-maker-toy.
But then it'd need to bring in a DOS compatible RTC, a CGA/MDA/EGA/VGA output, audio out (PC speaker or Sound Blaster?), joystick port, serial port (or PS/2 emulation from the USB bus). Should the SD card pretend to be an IDE hard disk?
It just needs to have the base AT system board components at their usual places (which can easily be integrated into a SoC[1]) and a useful bus for expansion like PCI(e) or even (E)ISA. Video, audio, and other peripherals can be external.
The Edison module connector could've easily housed a PCI or
ISA (which slow, but more "maker friendly" because the speeds are low enough that standard TTL ICs can be used) bus, but all they put on it was USB and GPIO.
...and Intel missed the point that x86 without the rest of the PC isn't that great. I suspect if the Edison was actually PC-compatible (to the point of e.g. being able to boot DOS and older Windows and run their applications) it would've had far more popularity (retro-gaming, etc.) than yet-another-maker-toy.