See my thread about my shortcut not working with Siri. That’s the shortcut I use to connect to HomePod. I have it set as a widget and also saved to my home screen. It’s fewer taps so seems faster. For connecting to AirPods I just take them out of case and put them in my ears, they almost always automatically connect faster than any action I might take to speed up the process. I did make a widget but have only used it once or twice from the iPad.