I think it boils down to a basic mismatch between knowing something and understanding something , the fact both machines has the same CPU helps a little with optimizations and low level improvement you can share across your SW , but the gap between how MacOS works and iPadsOS are not easy to bridge , the UI for example , is a bigger hurdle to overcome then anything CPU version related.
Its going to take a LOT of work to bring pro level application that will work on a very high level with the iPad constraints , be it a limitation or an advantage of the machines.
Apple will not just port a Pro app that cant use touchscreen in a clean and meaningful way , and just let you run it on a mirrored screen off the iPad , it might want you want to have (i.e an headless desktop iPad) but its clearly not the standard we love from Apple , just porting a desktop app to a touch based iPad to say " we have pro apps on our iPad" is something other companies might do , its OK for you to be disappointed with it of course , but you should make the effort to understand the "Why" as well , might help.
And it isn’t just a UI constraint. iOS, is derived from the same kernel as MacOS with a number of very intentional changes to adapt it to a mobile platform. Those changes aren’t because iOS was running on lower performance processors because MacOS and NextSTEP before it were running on much weaker hardware than the original iPhone. Those changes are because these devices have different customer expectations about how they’re used.
In general, mobile devices are personal devices so they don’t need to be designed to be shared. They have smaller batteries while simultaneously carrying expectations of all day battery life, so everything is designed to focus on power first. Phones for sure, and tablets to an extent are mostly used intermittently and handheld rather than for extensive work sessions on a desktop or lap, so they need to be able to context switch as quickly as possible and wake up, operate, and sleep with minimal latency. Brief handheld interactions also don’t make extensive use of complex multi-window cross application workflows.
Eventually iPadOS was branched from iOS in recognition of the fact that tablets are used differently than phones— and I suspect the branch indicates that the differences between them aren’t solely at the UI level.
These different requirements drive differences in how permissions are handled, how memory is allocated, how multitasking is handled, how interprocess communications are handled, how background tasks are managed, how swap is utilized, etc, etc, etc. Those are all OS responsibilities. Finder, Terminal and Network Utility are not OS components, they are applications exposing OS components to the user.
Part of achieving the customer experience of iPad was Apple taking a more active role in managing developers to ensure they play nice with others. That has meant restricting access to memory to enforce more efficient resource sharing and sharply limiting background processes from consuming battery or performance while other dev’s apps have the foreground. This is why entitlements are used for certain extended features. There are legitimate reasons for Affinity Photo or Procreate or Juno to want more RAM available, but raising the ceiling for everyone just leads to bloat.
While you can certainly run MacOS on a 12.9” display, the user experience as a tablet will be abysmal because MacOS isn’t designed for that purpose.
What makes people’s expectations seem out of touch to me is when they talk about apps like Final Cut Pro. A small screen tablet with limited battery life just isn’t suited for that kind of detailed editing or for extended composite and export sessions.
I think what people are asking for is an Everything Device. That’s not possible, but moreover it’s not a typical professional approach to work. That’s a hobbiest or prosumer mindset— “I want to have pro tools but I can’t afford to invest in my hobby like it’s a career, so I’d like to do as much as I can with the fewest tools.”
A pro wants the best tools for a job. These tools are tax deductible because they contribute to economic output. A MacPro with a Pro XDR display for edit and export. A system with a reference display for color grading. A good laptop for the hotel room or plane. A tablet as an aid in the field. The needs for the application on that tablet is fundamentally different than the needs in the office. They don’t want to lug a MacPro and 3, 32” displays into the field anymore than they want to use a tablet in the office for editing.
What I could eventually imagine, and what might go some way towards mollifying people, is a dual boot system that runs iPadOS when portable and MacOS when docked but share a common file system. I‘d expect it would require fat binaries for dual personality applications, and I’d expect that any applications loaded into the MacOS side from outside the AppStore ecosystem would not or be available under iPadOS.
I don’t expect that anytime soon. I kind of get the feeling that they put M1 in iPad because they realized they could, not so much because they planned it all along. The environment is catching up.
I’ve never had to deal with files larger than 4 gigs shared with PC’s, so I’ve never been forced to use exFAT. If you NEED exFAT and also NEED to use an iOS/iPadOS device, I don’t think this problem has been resolved. If you’re not using exFAT, you’re likely as ok as I am.
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