Referring to the Pro iPads of course, the consumer (6th generation?) ones are reasonably priced. You get basically an iPhone 7 processor inside with a decent screen and tablet form factor.
The iPad Pros seem to have been an attempt to shift a certain content creation niche away from Macbooks towards the iPad range.
They're nice devices for visual creatives and for music, albeit in a rather limited way. (Kraftwerk play live with iPads now.)
But they're not a substitute for the full desktop experience. So you get a clash between Cook's smaller-lighter-thinner aesthetic and the real-world demands of professional content creation.
The result is a very expensive toy you can do serious work on sometimes, but definitely not all the time.
I think we all have a very short memory in regard to the major changes Apple made to iOS on the iPad for iOS 11.
I would expect that the iPad will become more macOS-like over time, especially with the addition of USB-C. I think that means waiting and seeing what iOS 13 brings to it.
