Surprisingly yes. It used to be a limitation that apps would have to import the file on to local storage, edit, export back to external. But now extra APIs have been added and video editors can edit on external storage.
The iPad has been sitting in this limbo state where they are way more powerful than most people expect but still not really worth it when you can get a MacBook for the same price and do more.
Yes, you plug it in and it shows up in the Files app as another storage source along with iCloud and any third party service you have like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or you can store files locally in the iPad.