I also use a couple different NUC's, you can find them used for a decent price here and there. I have seen the i5 ones for under $100 used. New ones go from about $500 and up. You can buy them fully configured or ala cart. My "big NUC" came bare-bones and I added RAM and an SSD. I installed these, then installed Windows in less than an hour. If you buy a used one you can easily upgrade the RAM and storage, add WiFi (if not included) for not a lot of money.
The higher end one I have (Hades Canyon) has 3 USB (2 A and a C) on the front panel and 6 on the rear (4 A and 2 C) for a total of 9.
The smaller ones have 4, 2 A's on the front and 2 more on the rear.
All that said, USB Hubs work fine. I have had no issues using multiple hubs and up to 30 radios thru a single USB cable from the radio rack to the computer. The only issue is that you will have to configure the Comm Ports (most radios use serial via USB) and when you plug a cable into a different USB port on either the hub or computer the Comm Port often changes. I always had to document what radio (or rather USB cable if it contained the USB-Serial adapter within it) went into what USB port.