There's plenty of niches where they're just the right machine for the job. Every pilot I know flies with an iPad running Foreflight for everything from route planning to situational awareness.

I have an iPad Pro that sees infrequent use, but when I do use it, it is excellent. Its primary purpose is making music (background music for a podcast), but on occasion I also use it to sketch out ideas, and sometimes to create polished illustrations. It's not great for everything, but it's amazing at a few things.

If the goal is to get a lot of value from the device, I'd recommend getting a keyboard case and keep it attached most of the time (it can still be detached/put behind as needed)

Otherwise if getting out of the Apple ecosystem isn't an issue, going for a Samsung Chromebook or a Surface Pro also opens a lot more use cases, including "serious" work that you won't need to delay because you're not on a "real" computer.

In my experience, tablets tend to be a highly divisive device, either used a tremendous amount or not used at all. I have friends for whom the tablet was a primary computing device in high school and uni and they often use it more than their laptops. Meanwhile I hardly ever pick one up and can't really imagine buying one for myself.

My wife uses hers (a Pro hand-me-down from me) for basically everything except her job, where she's forced to use a PC.

Meanwhile, mine is basically a Plex machine.

Many concert sound technicians use iPads as remote monitors for their sound rigs.