Because it is a locked down supercomputer that could do a lot of things, if it wasn't artificially dumbed down. I completely understand why some people want to undumb it. It is light, powerful and more robust and portable than any notebook.
The benefit of the iPad is the touch screen, that's it. The size/weight argument is only valid for those who aren't loading it up with a keyboard cover. I assume everyone talking about coding on it are going to be using the Magic Keyboard.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21227741/apple-ipad-pro-m...
https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/ipad-keyboards/folio...
My iPad has better battery, cellular, etc…
Do I use it to code, no, but that is because I don’t really code anymore. I have used it along with parallels access to remote in to my Air from literally across the world, and run VSCode to troubleshoot some code for a friend. It worked fine. Anymore it’s become my travel machine.
The fact that you can remove the keyboard half is a big benefit to some as well.
It’s also less invasive that way, you can get a laptop stand but it looks ridiculous in coffee shops.
If you are going somewhere and will want to type when you get there, the Magic Keyboard is coming with you. It folds up to act as a case for your iPad during transit... it is a portable device.
What you call artificially dumbing down others would call optimising for the form factor.
It requires consciously designing everything to work as both a fully fledged computer and content consumption device. That touches everything from product design, internal hardware, thermals, operating systems, frameworks etc.
And what you say about 'consciously designed ...' amounts to nothing meaningful. Have you seen what hardware people have been running Doom on?
So does my watch, my fridge and my car.
iPad's hardware is already a perfectly usable general purpose computer. It is very portable, unlike your fridge, and has powerful processor and high-capacity battery, unlike your watch. The only problem preventing its use as a general purpose computer in a sense of Macbook is a lock by the manufacturer, which prevents loading a proper OS on it, and the absence of hardware specs, nothing more.
And an iPad is nowhere close to the safety-critical nature of the other computers. There is no defence for its locked down nature.
There is almost nothing stopping people from writing up iPad apps for coding things up, except for the fact that there is no market. Apple is no longer standing in the way IMO (stuff like Pythonista exists after all)
Is the context I described responsible for the lack of market? It may be.
I still think that iOS is the best mobile experience out there, but it's