It's not general purpose. The comparison section of the crowdsupply compares versus: https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao#comparisons

  rpi rp2350 (2x cortex-m3)
  espressif esp32 (2x xtensa lx6)
  espressif esp32-c3 (riscv)
  nxp imxrt1062 (cortex m7) (from teensy 4.1)
  microchip samd21 (cortex m0+)
  microchip samd51 (cortex m4f)
  nordic nrf52833 (cortex-m4f)

It is probably closest in spirit to a rp2350, which also famously has multiple powerful interesting i/o co-processors. rp2350 is 2+2 cpu+io-processor, baochip-1x is 1+4.

baochip's bao io (BIO) coprocessors use a very slim risc-v core (picorv), compared to a very small bespoke state machine for the rp2350. Baochip also has an exceedingly capable set of hardware security peripherals. And a full MMU, which definitionally does make it something more than an regular embedded chip!!

22nm doesn't sound like "much" I agree for a general purpose CPU. But rp2350 for example is 40nm. This is pretty ok for a embedded chip.