From where I'm standing, the iPad is a crappy platform that has no reason to exist. It's a worse Mac. I can maybe see artists using an iPad for the touch screen, but that use case only exists because Apple refuses to give the Mac a touch screen.
1. I find it extremely useful for one specific thing: chess. I can't effectively play blitz timed games with a mouse, and with a smartphone I get way more off-by-one mistaken taps than with the ipad mini.
2. Almost five years later, my daughter enjoys making animations on it with Scratch Jr.
3. It is a comfy form factor for just plain reading content from the web. When I come across something specific that I'd like to put more than, say, 40 minutes of directed attention to, I sometimes pull up the resource on the ipad and hit the couch. It's a lot easier for me to focus on long form content (especially if it's dense or boring) with the ipad because it isn't my computer. I can't instantly call up other interesting and ongoing tasks with a meticulously programmed hotkey.
Also, touchscreen laptops felt like an upgrade to me until I tried to use one. IMO, the geometry just isn't there. If the screen is close enough to be touched as part of the general workflow, then it's too close for your eyes or else the keyboard itself is too close.
An iPad (or tablet form factor) is excellent for consuming content on the internet, which includes eBooks amongst movies, reels, articles, blogs, news etc.
I've got a paper white and while the browser on it is decent, and you can email yourself PDF's to view on there - it's still a subpar experience for anything that isn't formatted to display as an eBook on an e-ink display.
Don't get me wrong, I love reading on my kindle and it's far easier on the eyes, but it doesn't do what an iPad does in the same way reading a book on the iPad is more tiresome than on a kindle.
Have you tried reading content on the web on the kindle, as the ones I mention above?
That said: a tablet wins out where I need to sit down with the docs of some technical monstrosity for a dedicated hour.
Like most modern computing devices (laptops, phones, smart watches, etc) it has crossover functionality with some devices but not in all cases, and in some it is the superior device for varying reasons.
Especially if you're trying to travel light, and you know you need a laptop, I don't understand why you'd pack the iPad as well.
The iPad is a great bridge between the phone and laptop. It's not for everyone, but it's not a huge extra effort or weight to travel with (slides into the laptop bag I'm taking anyway) and it fits my use case. If I was travelling and I forgot it, it also wouldn't be a huge deal and I would use my laptop.
It's also handy as a second monitor when coding (keep a terminal up on it) or to watch a show while sending emails or doing something else on the laptop. Again, not a big deal if I don't have it, but useful if I do.
I've never bought an iPad or found use for the one I was once given as a present, I have seen older people transition from using cheap crappy laptops to iPads with only positive feedback, probably because it's easier for them to use.
It's largely the same UI as their smartphone which they'll be familiar with by now, it's easier to pick up and put down, smaller form factor but not so small that they'd be pinch-zooming frequently as they would on a phone, etc.
Anecdotal but it makes sense. Also marginally easier for a layperson to hold an iPad up and show a partner what they're buying, than a laptop.
Personally, I'm in the industry, and I've been playing with computers for 27 years. I have a phone for reading stuff like this on the go, and a laptop for working on things home or at the office. I have no professional or recreational use for a tablet. I have a laptop and I'm very glad it doesn't have a touchscreen. But I can understand why non-laptop products exist.
Couple of other developers I know have iPads, but they have them in the same way they have an electric toothbrush — they didn't need it, but they bought it anyway. Mostly see them use it for browsing the web or shopping after work. I suppose if your stuff's at the office and you just want to cruise the web, an iPad is lighter than a personal laptop, but I just use my phone /shrug emoji.
Some illustrators I know have iPads but I'm pretty sure they'd survive without them. For actual work they have a proper setup (wacom, magic trackpad), and if you need to sketch something on the fly, pen and paper is still a functional and low-cost solution, as is a phone since you have one already for a dozen other reasons.
Designers don't need an iPad at all, mouse is sufficient.
Both of my iPads never leave my home. I am an avid traveller (before the pandemic) and even then I never took my iPad out of my house.
I do travel with my MacBook Pro (with Linux these days), Kindle and a couple of smartphones (I use both iPhone and Android). I don’t see any need in an iPad at all.
A Mac with a touch screen would be worse than useless for this, because it still wouldn’t be a tablet form factor, and you need that for the right feel.
So while I too would like to have a touch screen on my MacBook, there’s no way I’d ever use it for drawing the way I use my iPad.
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