How does one choose between laptop or mini PC plus a monitor nowadays?

[RageTester]

Both have downsides, like thermals and noise of laptops. And extra cables is what comes to mind when thinking about PCs.
Obviously smaller screen size uses less power, been using 15.6 inch laptop at home 4 ever and bigger screen sure feels better at work.
Viewing angles are non existent, I am sure anything modern would look better.
Framework laptop is not available in my region, so I am leaning towards small size PC without graphics card. Have experience with Pi 400 and that's nice passive cooled device, the only downside no full size HDMI port. So I have been looking into monitors somewhere around 21.5 inch, but there are so many model names and hardly any reviews, and that was just samsung products... I don't need display port! HDMI and some older VGA or DVI would be good for compatibility.
Monitor should work with my current devices, while I keep looking for more powerful productivity machine.
I kinda like touch controls for monitor power, not to be confused with touchscreen.
VESA mount just in case I want to flip it 90 degrees. Honestly why all monitors don't have that? I understand  extra arm is required.
IPS or fancy stuff Linus keeps talking about. No RGB is a big bonus.
Skipped all the holiday sales just cuz I can't decide what to get.
Also have a crazy idea of removing screen from a laptop and connecting only external one. Keyboard with computer inside sure weighs more than just a keyboard.

Thanks if you made it this far into my blahblahbing.

Suggest something if you have had good experience with modern products, and feel free to warn others from making a huge mistake.

[GuiltySpark_]

Should be incredibly simple. Do you absolutely need to move this PC around outside of your home regularly including potentially on flights? 

 

Get a laptop.

 

If you don't NEED a laptop, don't get a laptop, they are a giant overpriced compromise, especially for gaming. 

 

I'll be honesty you said a lot of other little things but it seems like a lot of rambling. What are you looking for?

[GER_T4IGA]

Source for my opinion: I have a powerful system in an Ncase M1 which is reasonable small (with a dedicated GPU) but that is freaking heavy.

 

If you need to move it, get a laptop. If you have to bring a monitor it doesn't really matter if your PC is compact. You could get something like an Intel NUC but if you have to go somewhere where you also have to bring the monitor a laptop is 98% of times the better option. A display is heavy, fragile and still bulkier than most but the largest laptops. 

[Brooksie359]

Honestly I would lean laptop if you need to move it around. Also I would opt for a laptop that has hdmi ports for external monitors that way you can still have the nice experience of a bigger screen. I mean ideally you would have a laptop that had thunderbolt 3.0 and you could use a thunderbolt dock to connect multiple monitors. That is what I do for work and it Honestly is basically 0 difference than when I use to work off a desktop. 

[RageTester]

Extra then: laptop would need to be super special for me to get new one(like the framework). Never used a plane, not a fan of long travel and as I say work provides their own computer. So I am looking for something to use at home everyday. Current laptop is starting to run out of RAM.

RDNA 2 iGPU sounds good, but there are no devices with that yet. 

Never had Ryzen APU before, I can live without thunderbolt. Limited by space, so I am not planning to have multi monitor setup all the time.

Passively cooled devices don't need as much dust cleaning inside them, and I always wondered how a tiny PC with huge heatsink on top of it would look like.