Do you need anything on the old setup that can't be brought in via other means on a clean slate restart? Would this be too time consuming/ high pita factor?
My personal stuff I have often opted for fresh start. Idevices, new MBP's....I like clean slates. Apps like notability I just dropbox back in notes I need. That's my way. Not a big iOS gamer so don't have that issue. Pics and vids I have my dedicated gear for so don't collect much on my ipad in this regard.
Wife's/sons stuff is bogged down with game saves and such. So their devices become restores. Process I never had an issue with the few times I have done it.
Depending on how much you have the restore can be a good chunk of time. Like an hour assuming lightning/usb connection to a puter with iTunes and full backup. Not sure about icloud if its all in the cloud.
I prefer to start fresh and set it up as a new device. Yeah, it is more work setting things up, but you start with a fresh iPad without any carry-over cruff. It also forces you to go through your apps and decide whether you really need them or are still using them.
I always start new, and as a matter of practice I do a wipe rebuild of all iPads once a year.
Too much data/processes builds up over time.
I desperately need to do this to my iMac as well.
Me too, my mid-2010 iMac is in desperate need of an update because it's so darn slow. The next iteration of 5K iMacs will be its replacement.