I’m curious what you consider serious work? I write a lot on the iPad, can answer emails, get my shopping done, etc. I definitely wouldn’t use it for programming, but I know some people have set it up to do so.
Yeah, programming. I agree it's a pleasure to do the other tasks you mentioned on the iPad, but coding is cumbersome (although still possible). I'm using a VPS and Blink, the upshot is that you become decently efficient working with tmux/vim/etc.