… with the iPad, it seems like Apple's model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of "that's too complicated for my mom" (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers).
I think Cory is a bit harsh. I've had every version of the iPad since my first iPad (3G) in April 2010, and it continues to be useful as a mid-way point (bicycle) between my iMac (truck) and iPhone (sports car). In fact, I had an iPad four years before I bought my first iPhone. While there are certain things that frustrate me about iPadOS, most precisley the insanity of gestures and multitasking, I love my iPad Pro and I expect I may always own one.
You can disable the extra gestures and multitasking features.
There are "new" gestures to accomplish the same thing as was done with previous gestures. The newer iPad Pro and iPhones have no home button, hence the gestures are different when using an iPad with a TouchID button and when using one with FaceID. Additionally, there are new gestures to use multitasking features. The point is to make using these multitasking features easier and more intuitive. Technology is meant to serve humans.
There is a group of hard core Apple geeks who won't be happy until the iPad becomes a touch screen Mac. I wrote about this on my site last week?: https://billbennett.co.nz/ipados-criticism/
Most people who use iPads and any other type of computer will struggle to understand the criticisms, the iPad is something that excels at some jobs, that is most of what most people want most of the time. It just doesn't handle all of those things.
I'm not sure why that is. It's fanatical in the religious sense of "I must convert you to save you".