They were definitely not perfect, but at the time (and at my budget as a middle school student), Palm devices were the only way to have a pocket-sized computer of my own that I could bring to and use in school.
The shareware community was amazing, and it's almost impossible to imagine how much stuff I could fit into 2 MB of total system memory: An eBook reader and a couple of books, several games (shout out to Space Trader), a TV remote control, offline newspaper articles...
Only to see it all disappear in a heartbeat when changing batteries, with no way to restore while traveling for the summer! (My m100 had a flaky capacitor and would sometimes do that.)
Maybe it was designed by people who couldn't hear it? High-pitched sounds are supposedly the first to go with age/tinnitus/etc: https://mosquitoloiteringsolutions.com/why-mosquito/sound-de...
This technology required a high-voltage (~100V) squarewave across the mostly-capacitive EL panel. This squarewave was at audio frequencies.
The panel also happened to function as a piezo tweeter, depending on mounting.
I worked for a cell phone company at the time. I have two memories of this technology:
1. Using the prototype phone out of its case and touching the 100 V squarewave to my ear. That's some tender skin...
2. Using a primary transformer in reverse as an audio transformer, to play the lab stereo over EL panel. It turns out the panel color changes a little bit with frequency.