all that you said is true.I believe most here miss the important part: The 1TB/2TB models come with 16GB of memory which is still more than the newer models with less than 1TB. So, in some scenarios this cheaper M2 iPad mit 16G memory may perform better than the M4 with 8GB. Highly depends on the use case though.
That said, it's not such an exclusive deal... it's just the market value of the tablet dropping by almost 50 percent. That in itself is something that may be a huge mistake by Apple. In the past Apple gear used to retain its value quite steady. More recently this is no longer the case.
Image you bought the 1Tb version 1(+) years ago, you lost already 45% in NEW value. Additionally your tablet is 1(+) years old and used. So, after 1 year for a mint condition iPad Pro you likely lost 60% (!!!) of value. I could image people now more than ever just wait for the dip to happen and buy at 50% off. Because the iPads are overpowered anyway and handicapped by their OS...
Apple iPad Pro 11" 4. Gen, Silver, 1TB, 5G in EU since beginning of the year:
View attachment 2428752
but, there is something else going on with these large (very large, extra large) discounts.
maybe its simply that there was an unusually short period of time between the launches of the M2 and M3 and M4 and they just need to clear the inventory completely. even with these huge discounts, i wouldn't be interested in anything other than an M4 with 16G RAM right now, no matter what apple says that AI (apple intelligence) is good to go on M1 processors. M1/M2 with only 8G RAM will not be to comfortably run even apple's earliest AI tasks. clear those older stocks right now.