We’re the opposite. When I work on a design and illustration, the iPad Pro is my most used device. I’m waiting for the M3 iPad Pro next year to replace my aging 2018 iPad Pro.
I’m still good with my intel MBP 16. I’d probably change my mind if I can afford both devices :))
This is only a problem for people who think the iPad is a computer. It’s not.
When my laptop is in for repairs, my iPad Pro 12.9 is most definitely my computer doing everything I need, sometimes better than my MBP, and sometimes not as well. It has a CPU, RAM, graphics processor, and SSD storage. It runs software. Sure sounds like a computer to me. 
it is a different design, in some areas with greater flexibility, with other areas, less flexibility. It’s just a different kind of computer, which may or may not meet everyone’s needs. It computes to run. Doesn’t that make it a “computer”? 
Thanks for clearing that up for me, but you’re a little late. I spent 25+ years working in I.T. thinking a computer was an electronic device that could store, retrieve, and process data.
That definition applied to just about everything I used every day. Routers, switches, NAS, SAN, firewalls, telephone systems, the engine control module in my car, and the Apple Watch on my wrist. It even applied to my Mac and my iPad.
Did you have to go to the AppStore to install your software? 
I do for my iPad, at least for now. Most of the computers I worked on over the years ran on proprietary software than I had to get from the manufacturer. And if Apple continues to lock down my Mac I may have to switch to another platform.
Yep, my thoughts too… Thankfully Adobe and TextExpander will be just fine in Windows.
I have a 14" MacBook Pro but I still use my 11" iPad Pro as much as I did before I bought the MacBook Pro.
I use it for my morning routine every day. As a part of that routine, I often tap a shortcut that starts the planning for a new blog post with title and initial thoughts. I read, write in my Day One journal, check my calendar and task manager, and get ready for the day. All on my iPad.
As a part of my blog production process, I create (and revisit multiple times during the incubation period) a mind map in MindNode. I enjoy being able to enter nodes and move them around with my finger on my iPad, all from the comfort of my sofa. And if a new thought comes to me, it’s easy to pick up my iPad and add it.
I open Obsidian or Craft or Notes on my iPad to enter a new note and do some thinking, again all from the comfort of my sofa. If this prompts a new calendar entry or task manager entry, it’s easy to do on an iPad.
I tend to leave my iPad in our living areas, either the living room or a kitchen counter. As a result, I’m constantly picking it up during the day to check off completed tasks in my task manager, check the time of an upcoming appointment, or use Maps to find the best route for an errand. I look up the answers to questions I have (everything from an actor’s background to how to fix something on my Mac).
It’s always there, starts immediately, and covers 80% of my needs. There’s much more friction involved to go to my Mac, open it and wait for startup. That’s not to say I don’t use my Mac for more heavy-duty jobs like gaming and a myriad of tasks that work better for me (with older eyes) on my 27" Studio Display.
For me the Mac and the iPad work together seamlessly, with updates being synced to both devices.
If you’ve tried to make the iPad be a Mac in the past, then I’m sure there’s more friction using the iPad than a MacBook Pro. But if you use an iPad for the kinds of tasks Apple designed it for, it’s a wonderful tool. I regularly think, how did I function before iPads?
Exactly.
Thanks for providing an historical perspective and a more comprehensive view of what a computer is. I go back to the time before time when we thought about Turing Machines, programmed in Fortran, and used Control Data big iron machines, interactive time-sharing on Plato systems, and 14-inch disc packs or half-inch 9-track tapes on Hitachi IBM-work-alike big iron machines. Back even before ASCII when so-called “future proof plain text” was encoded as EBCDIC!
I was a business major so the closest I came to Fortran was a one quarter course in the 70’s that could have been named “Computers for Dummies”. 
They showed us a little Fortran and COBOL and had us write a few extremely simple programs that we typed on punch cards. It taught me enough to be able to talk to real programmers a decade later.
Whenever I see discussion of whether an iPad is a computer, I think back to elementary school, when our teacher explained that a thermostat is an example of a very simple computer.
My MBP is at an age that I’ll have to make a replacement decision in 2024. Concurrently, my work is slowing down in its last stages, too. I go back and forth with myself “do I still need an MBP or will any size iPad be a good next-phase device”. In the future I won’t need as much software day-to-day, but I will want to have apps that only-work or only-work-best on Macs, like Curio or theBrain. Also, cannot imagine wanting to use the second-rate mobile versions of DEVONthink or Obsidian, IMO. So, it’s come down to willingness to pay a premium for a computer solely because of software, not form factor.
Katie
One reason the iPad works so well for me is I rely heavily on cloud based solutions. Something I have been doing on my Mac for many years.
When asked I’ve always told people to select their software first because that will determine what hardware to purchase.
I’m not convinced most people need a MBP nowadays (I’m saying that as the user of one myself!). There’s very little that a MacBook Air can’t do - it can even run ArcGIS (via Parallels, as that is a Windows only application - but GIS software is resource heavy which is why I’m mentioning it). There are obviously vocations that need the wallop that MBP and desktop Macs provide, but for most of us I’m not so sure now that MBP is worth the price.
(I have been pondering what to do when my Intel MBP needs replacing, which will be in the next 18-24 months probably.)
I certainly don’t need the wallop of the MBP. I could easily get by with a MBA. However, there are two things keeping me from moving to the 14” MBA: the screen quality and the ports. If the Air had the same screen and added a port, I’d probably replace the MBP.
There’s a 3rd. There is no 14” MBA.
Well, that’s a good reason not to go with the 14”. I meant 15”.
MBP for me because I need a large screen on a laptop. Might seem odd, but that extra inch (from 15 MBA to 16 MBP) makes a difference to me. The cost is amortized over almost 15K hours of use in 5 years, or so I always convince myself, so the investment is worth it.
Katie
Does the MBA support multiple external displays?
No. 20 characters…….