I wholeheartedly agree with you that TIC-80 is not as great as PICO-8 is, and I would never recommend it over PICO-8 to someone who wants to start their adventure with game development.
But it is not a clone of PICO-8. It offers a resolution that's very similar to that of the Game Boy Advance, so it serves as a nice transition stage towards GBA development. You can then enjoy your games on a console like Anbernic RG351P that's optimized for GBA games (2x integer scaling, same screen ratio). It's a specific use case, but one where TIC-80 shines.
Yep. I bought a yellow one with the intention of making it a dedicated PICO-8 machine, and it is wonderful. It's not as perfect as 351p is for GBA, as 5x integer scaling leaves you with some unused screen space, but still, an absolute joy to play.
But it is not a clone of PICO-8. It offers a resolution that's very similar to that of the Game Boy Advance, so it serves as a nice transition stage towards GBA development. You can then enjoy your games on a console like Anbernic RG351P that's optimized for GBA games (2x integer scaling, same screen ratio). It's a specific use case, but one where TIC-80 shines.