If GPU manufacturers can make an eGPU that's standalone and connect to PC/Laptop via Thunderbolt3(USB-C), that'd be pretty neat especially if they can make it <$100 more expensive than the cost of GPU in PC version. I can see a large portion of people who doesn't want to spend $300+ on an external GPU box just to be able to upgrade the $200 card inside.
I don't think desktop solutions (like Microsoft speech synthesizer) does a great job at producing "natural" and life-like speeches. Sure, it does read the text, but that's about it.
To properly produce speech, the synthesizer needs to take into account context of around words to determine how to pronounce ambiguous words or how to pace the speech. What about the tone? How about making the speech sounds more engaging? These are the things that need data model to work great. However, it's just difficult to cram that into a desktop app. And why would any company do that when they can put the service online and charge for it (which is totally fair)?