There's flexibility with Pis that can let them be smaller when you need it. Hackberry Pi CM5 for example takes much less space compared to a laptop. Obviously the builtin screen and keyboard are also much more limited than a laptop though. Both of those can be fixed by attaching a display and a keyboard when needed though. Plug in display glasses and you've still got a setup that takes much less space than a laptop. I also like that you can plug in a Pi to a desktop dock anywhere so if you have the ability to configure a space for yourself you could just bring the Pi in your pocket to it.