I would say the same for you. Arm-based macs doesn't imply an iPad with a keyboard. Apple likely has their own vested interests in wanting to use their own homegrown processor designs instead of being beholden to Intel's increasingly erratic product roadmap, but this doesn't mean that iOS and OSX will merge anytime soon.
I am prepared to go out on a limb and bet with you that the iPad will never run OSX. I do believe that Apple will keep adding more productivity-oriented features to iOS to make it fit with their vision of mobile computing. I won't be surprised if Apple finally decides to fork iOS into both iPhone OS and iPad OS and develop both separately. However, I don't see the iPad running OSX (in its current Mac incarnation) ever.
I predict that we will eventually see iOS improve in capability until it rivals the functionality of desktop OSes, without compromising the strengths of its platform (power efficiency, ease of use, better security). These are things you arguably lose by moving over to a desktop platform, even OSX, which is more resource intensive and power hungry.
This change won't happen overnight. It will take years, but when it does occur, you will be glad that Apple did not take the short-sighted path of simply slapping OSX on a tablet and calling it a day.
Right now, I feel that specs aren't the iPad Pro's primary concern. I would like to see the iPad Pro get updated to support 4k video recording (it can edit 4k video, so why not cut out the middleman and let the user record video on it directly?), 3D touch, 2nd-gen touch-ID and Hey-Siri (essentially putting it on par with the 6S), but these are very incremental updates and I feel the user experience isn't significantly impacted without them.
I feel Apple should just scrap the 32gb as well. I get there are people who might buy the iPad Pro just as a larger entertainment device, but what kind of message are you sending?
Personally, I won't be surprised if the iPad moves to a 2-year refresh cycle. At this point, the hardware is quite mature, and I don't think there are quite enough incremental changes that can be made to justify minor refreshes on an annual basis.
The biggest issue is getting developers to support the device by creating more powerful productivity apps that really tax the system and allow people to get meaningful work done. The hardware is more than capable, the main issue is the software.
Apple could walk the talk by releasing an iPad version of X-code, optimised for a touch interface. What would be more convenient than coding iOS apps and testing them directly on the iOS device itself?
There are already apps that allow people to do web development, edit 4k video and podcasts on a tablet. However, I don't think people are quite aware of them, so Apple could help advertise these capabilities here. Apple could also reach out to developers and work with them to create the sort of apps that iOS is noticeably lacking.
At the end of the day, I feel it's still all about the software.
