[galleywest200]

An iPad for drawing vs a cheap tablet for drawing are a mile apart in capability.

Maybe for technical work your statement is true, but for artistic work an iPad with Procreate/Dreams is absolutely a viable primary workstation.

[jijijijij]

Yes, of course if you have a concrete, specific significant use case for the pencil it may be more appealing. But the pre M1 iPad with the pencil did the job as well, for drawing and pure handwriting. Obviously the iPad is marketed to be more than a single purpose device. The processing power is completely wasted. Most people probably won't use the pencil much in the long term.

It's file management, app limitations and interoperability which kill usefulness.