I absolutely hated slide over so glad it's gone!
As a mostly desktop Mac user I welcome these new features in iPad OS as it feels so much more familiar having the functions I use every day right there on my iPad without having to learn funny jesters and swipes that are alien to a desktop Mac.
Contrary to there masses, I feel OS 26 is a great new OS. Don't get me wrong there are some funny glitches but as a .0 update it finally makes all our apple product more unified and easier to use. The new multitasking, traffic lights, preview and background tasks are huge upgrades for me rather than just the flashy GUI overhauls.