It was considered the weakest in a field of very good products, which is far cry from "the iPad sucks derp". The MacBook Air is pretty great but it would be probably be picked as the weakest Mac laptop.
What you mean picked up as the "weakest"? The M2 MacBook Air is the most popular Apple computer. It will be picked as 1st.
Now where it goes wrong for the iPad Pro.
- More expensive than a M2 MacBook Air
- Restricted to mobile apps rather than full fledged desktop applications.
- Terrible battery life in comparison to a M2 MacBook Air
- Batteries cannot be replaced. If the batteries are dead, you have to throw away your iPad. Or be lucky Apple gives you a brand new iPad.
- There is 0% battery management on the iPad which kills battery health (even the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a battery management system in place).
- Restricted to things allowed by Apple.
Unless you are a digital artist, the iPad Pro doesn't make any sense anymore now that Mac have Apple Silicon chips.