Below is my attempt to summarize what Banana Pi boards are and how people usually use them in a product development flow:
- PoC / Prototyping: A fast, low-risk bridge from concept to product—validate the system architecture and core functions before your custom PCB exists.
- Software bring-up: Bring up and stabilize bootloader, OS, drivers, and services in parallel with hardware development.
- Integration testbed: Integrate and verify peripherals, interfaces, protocols, and end-to-end use cases (including backend/UI).
- Engineering risk check: Run practical sanity checks for performance, power, thermal, and basic EMI/RF; identify bottlenecks early.
- Pre-series & test automation: Use for demos, soak tests, and regression/CI testing on real hardware.
- Reference baseline: Use pinout/power-tree/layout ideas as a starting point—this does not replace production validation/certification.
In short: use the dev kit until the design is mature enough to migrate onto a cost-optimized, product-specific production board.