Pi vs arduino

what i can tell you, as a "common-sense n00b" - is that the Pi uses 'brains', while the Uno uses 'brawn'.

Quite the opposite, in fact.
To get the best out of a slow, memory-limited microcontroller, you have to use your brain, but with a much faster microprocessor with RAM beyond the dreams of Bill Gates, you can get away with being much lazier.