I think it depends on what the application is. If the design is such you need to have a sophisticated user-interface then a PC-based SBC might not be a bad idea. But if the user interface requirements are low then I would agree with you that the PC-based approach is overkill.

I think it also depends on whether this is a single installation or something they plan on mass-producing for hospitals. If it's a single installation then it might not be worth the develop and debugging time to do it on an MCU. But if they're going to sell this product to many hospitals they need to consider the fact that unless the user-interface requirements demand some fancy GUI, the additional cost of a PC-based SBC as compared to an 8052-based SBC is very significant.

Regards,
Craig Steiner