I haven’t read all 11 pages of this thread, but my iPads handle 90+% of what I need a laptop to do these days. I have a mini 6 and a 12.9” M1 iPad Pro. Now, what I do might be vastly different from what the OP does, but there’s no way any of it rises to a class-action suit level. Actually, for me, the iPad is better since I can’t use an Apple Pencil on a MacBook screen.
In fact, I almost feel like my M1 MacBook Air is going to waste sitting on my desk acting like a desktop computer, docked to a 32” display, ethernet, external SSD, external mechanical keyboard, corded mouse, etc. Probably should have gotten an M1 mini instead since I only need it to be mobile maybe 1% of the time.
OP should just sell their iPad and move on to a different product.
The iPad is not a keyboardless MacBook. Want a keyboardless laptop? Buy a Microsoft Surface. Just don’t expect it to be finger-friendly like an iPad.