I've never liked the surface style flimsy flipbook keyboards. Otherwise the form-factor is perfect. There's gotta be a better alternative to that keyboard.
Upside - the kickstand is awesome, the microSD reader is in a good spot, the battery life is ok, the speakers are ok, the USB3 is in a good spot.
The downside. That keyboard is the worst. You are 100% right. I've typed many thousands of words on it now, and while it's comfortable, it's only good on a desk or desk-type surface. Try it on a lap, and it's basically worthless (like the kickstand).
The pen is trash. The pen stopped working, was replaced, stopped working, was replaced, stopped again (and has been clipped to my desk since). The touchscreen goes out regularly. The wifi is crappy, constantly bouncing. The bandwidth to the microSD is terrible (it's a USB device internally, and slow). The power adapter is a good idea, but I have no idea what they were thinking. If it's cable up, it heats up at the point where it bends. If it's cable-down, it bends super sharply at the desk and heats up there. The light is always white, so no charging feedback. The USB port on the power adapter can't charge anything, including a phone, while the surface is on. Otherwise it keeps dropping out and shows 'plugged in, battery' back and forth every few seconds.
So yeah - spare me another POS like this.