It appears that Apple, at least when it comes to the iPad, is increasingly unwilling to deliver new software that isn't explicitly tied to a new piece of hardware (and thus a hardware sale). We got writing APIs in order to sell $99 Apple Pencils, but never an actual vision for what it would really mean to do professional work on the iPad. And at some point, it stops seeming like there's some master plan waiting to be unveiled just around the corner. The iPad has been around for 8 years and the fundamentals of using one have largely remained the same, the same as the original subpar experience we excused since it was obviously a 1.0 product. The iPad has basically gotten thinner, faster, and gotten a pencil (which don't get me wrong, is great). iPad sales reflect this: iOS DEVICES may be doing amazing, but iPad sales have plateaued or declined repeatedly. Apple seems eternally confused by this, as if they think the product is done. They begrudgingly offer a "new" iPad with older parts and slightly cheaper price as if people just don't get what they're missing.
But what's missing is a message, a message other than "this is obviously the next iteration of the computer, why aren't you buying them even though we hardly update the Mac either?". The message and vision would inspire Apple to lead by example in the software they produce for it.
Yeah, it felt a little stuck for a while, but iPads are ridiculously more useful and viable as work platforms than they were in the iOS 8/9 days.
What are iOS developers supposed to develop on?
Presumably laptops and desktops with Apple chips inside.
Where do you see that?
That said, CPUs have gotten so cost effective that it makes possible something which has come in and out of favor for a while, which is a network of devices that do one thing co-operating as a larger system.
So lets say you buy your "iDisk" which is a storage brick that you can put on a short range wireless network. A couple of iPad monitors, a wireless Apple keyboard, and a wireless Apple mouse. You set up this box of stuff and arrange it around on your desk and it is essentially a "single" computer system perceptually which, running a development "app" could work fine for development.
The "brick" turned out to be the all-aluminum MacBook, being carved from a single piece of metal.
Maybe someday they'll make a cross-platform Xcode.
Give us a MacOS-like desktop mode. We could connect a mouse and keyboard using bluetooth. We could airplay to a display. Even better, replace lightning with thunderbolt so we can connect our phones to an external GPU.
I still expect that they'll offer devices in traditional form factors -- laptop-like devices and desktop devices, if the market demands this. But for most users, they don't care what's inside if it let's them accomplish what they're trying to accomplish.