Hi,

it is nice to read all the urban legends about 8051s and Pics here ;)
So here are the corrections:

A hardware stack, which is 8 entries deep, does not save any RAM. It only is a pain to program.

PICs do not often have more RAM than 8051s. There are many variations of the 8051, lots of it with much RAM and other nice features.

Assembler language is in common not easier on 8051 because of CISC, it is easier because of the crappy shortcomings of the PIC.
Good RISC CPUs are really fun to program!

PICs do not need less components because of POR or 20/25 mA current drive/sink, because there are also lots of 8051 devices with the same abilities.

For hobbyists the PIC ist not better because there are also a lot of development tools for the 8051 for free, simulators, C compilers, Assemblers, Monitors, etc., in fact there are more support and tools out there than for the PIC family.

There are also 8051s which have internal EEPROM.

So, in general I would recommend everyone who is not sure which controller to start with to take a 8051. They are powerful (there are 50MIPS variants out there), they have everything you can think of (even USB or IDE or MP3 onboard!).

So, show me a PIC, for which I can't find a 8051 which is not better suited!