This exactly. I bought an iPad in 2020, thinking it would be a second laptop to port around while my primary laptop stayed at home. Turns out that while the iPad can in theory do everything my laptop does, in practice certain tasks can be cumbersome. Now I just divide tasks between different devices and accept that certain things (like any image manipulation or editing) can only be done on my laptop or desktop. Then there’s the tasks that the iPad does perfectly fine (like writing) but the thin keyboard hurts my fingers if I’m at it for more than 30 minutes or so; I need a regular springy keyboard for a proper writing session. Apparently I type hard.

In all, I thought the iPad would be like a slightly smaller laptop, but instead it’s just an oversized phone.

I imagine that a separate keyboard will work. But that's the tail wagging the dog, like the stuff I mentioned.