If you will be making significant use of multitasking/multiwindow THAT is when you'll appreciate the ASK. Having 1/3 of the screen taken up by the onscreen keyboard while in splitwindow, you'll wish that you still had the ASK.
I'm a big proponent of owning both the ASK and SC... because "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't."
This. I like having both the keyboard and cover--one for traveling light and one for not. Honestly, I don't feel like it's the full iPad Pro setup without the Pencil and Keyboard. if I had no intention of using either of those things with the iPad, I would not spend the money on a Pro and would get the standard model instead.
I finally found my Apple pencil but could not get it to pair. It would say connected and then Not connected. The battery had not been charged since the 12.9 was introduced, many months ago. Will try leaving it charging for a long time to see if it will "wake up"