LOL. I’m honestly baffled at this point, but I’ll try and explain it one more time... 😅
I’m not saying that the sleep/wake button will not be able to sense if you are resting your finger on it. That’s not the point...
what you said is in fact correct: the sleep/wake button will sense your finger resting on it and it will unlock the iPad when you do.
But it will not take you to the home screen at the same time like the old home button.
Unlocking and going to the home screen are two different steps in iOS. When you use the home button, those two steps can be combined in one seamless action (press the button to go home + rest your finger briefly on it to unlock).
Not so with the sleep/wake button, because pressing the sleep/wake button does not take you to the home screen. If you press and rest your finger on the sleep/wake button the new iPad Air will unlock, but you’ll still need to perform one more action (swipe up) to go to the home screen.
Current iPad Air - from locked to home screen:
- Press and rest briefly your finger on the home button. Pressing performs the “go to home screen” step, while resting your finger briefly at the same time will also unlock the device. Two steps combined in one action (touchID actually got so fast over the years that basically you almost forget that you have to keep resting your finger on the button after you press it).
New (rumored) iPad Air - from locked to home screen:
- Rest your finger on the sleep/wake button to perform the unlock step.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go to the home screen.
Notice it’s two actions now. And you cannot combine them into one action anymore because the primary function of the button you are resting your finger on is sleep/wake instead of go to home screen.
If anybody is reading this and still is not convinced... please read it again. And again, until you get it
Of course the rumor might be wrong. BUT, if the rumor is right, this is the only way it is possibly going to work.