I think it’s misguided to think your iPad is going to be better at everything your desktop does and more.
Yes. But it should be equivalent if not better in relatively lightweight workloads. Due to iOS workings ... is not. The experience is actually more convoluted in many aspects ... and lacking in others.
As a consumption and doodling device is excellent. But that is where the ball stops as far as excellency goes in my experience.
When I travel, I carry my 12.9” iPP and a 16” MBP. Two portable devices sounds redundant.
In the Post PC era it should be as redundant as needing to take a Car and Truck just to travel. The design problem of the iPad OS today is as such as most of the times the it comes to creation is not. The laptop is better.
I agree with Steve Jobs that most people need a Car ... not a truck, ... yet right now its seams that Trucks (laptops) are needed much more than Cars (tablets) by people at an existential level. This is a software design challenge not a hardware one considering that the iPad M1 is very well equipped to handle the workload as we can see with MBA M1.
Meaning, it should be at least do the work of an MBA as well if not better given the added touch and stylus facilities. But it does not.
To tackle this Apple is bringing Stage Manager and external monitor support. But the thing progressing like a snail ... dragging their feet.
For year I tried to keep my Truck in the Office (iMac Core i9 maxed) and travel around with the Car (iPad Pro 12.9" 2019), precisely because I don't expect it to replace my desktop. You see, I don't expect the Car to replace the Truck yet I expect to have a good Car experience ... and I did not. And now with Macbook equipped with ARM ... offering iPad like snappy experiences on an laptop .. the Truck hardware as evolved greatly yet the Car stood still.
When it comes to use the Magic Keyboard and a Mouse to create a relatively long report in Pages, a end to end presentation in Keynote ... even email ... the all experience starts fall very short. It actually in moments it feels comparatively a hack ... no better than usable.
So ... my next iPad will probably be an iPad Mini "M1" ... with no Magic Keyboard. Pair it with an MBA M2 ... and get Studio M3 Max if not M3 Pro in the desk. This because I believe that the iPad OS challenges will no the solved by Stage Manager alone and will take a long time for the rest to be ironed out if ever to make it a proper Car. For consumption, dodging and photos editing do not need more than an iPad Air really.
The ridicule thing is that we arrive to a situation that the difference between and Air and a Pro is actually the display quality. Imagine LG coming branding OLED TV as TV Pro ... makes no sense. OLED / Microled is not a Pro feature ... its a consumer feature that some might pay extra for or not.
Cheers.