It's more pleasant to stand a laptop on my lap on the couch than to keep gripping a tablet. And almost all the tablet cases are terrible floppy messes (especially Apple's with their weak magnets and poor angle choices)

This is the main reason I don't "get" tablets. They're just more uncomfortable to use for me. You have to keep holding onto it and you get gorilla arm vs using a trackpad.

I can see that if you're constantly gripping the tablet. I sit with it similar to how I would with a book or a magazine; I'm not actively gripping it, and it allows more posture variations than a laptop for me.

Therein lies the difference. If I’m on my ass, I’m horizontal. I only lay on the couch. Never sit.

Keeping in mind that most people sit on their sofas I'd say there's market for tablets then :P

This is why Microsoft's Surface line is great. I have the Go and the stand is wonderful. Plus it transforms into a tiny laptop by snapping on the keyboard.

The problem with the surface is that it is not good at "use it for 10mim, switch it off, and reuse it 30min later" kind of use case. It either goes to sleep then takes a while to wake up, or doesn't go to sleep and sucks the battery. It doesn't have the instantly on and available behavior that smartphones and non windows tablets have.

restore from soft shutdown is pretty quick, restore from sleep is very quick. The problem is that both still drain battery pretty quick.

Agreed. I have tried using a tablet on the sofa but I just find it a poor experience. If I need to write something I either need a case with a shitty keyboard which basically makes it a crappy laptop in form factor or I have to lose half the content to the on-screen keyboard.

I currently use a MacBook (the 12" model) and it is close to perfect for casual sofa browsing. It has a decent enough keyboard, a perfect trackpad, good screen and while not a huge deal I still prefer macOS over iOS. Even when I use macOS in full screen model so it acts a lot like iOS I still find just having a mouse cursor much nicer to work with over a touch screen. I think this is mostly down to how awful the new oleophobic coating is on the new iPad's (Pro included). I can't stand seeing all those finger print smudges over the screen. Drives me up the wall!

I guess I am just too used to a laptop form factor and can't get past my own mental blocks?

Mental blocks aside there are still plenty of physical blocks with using a tablet. I can't imagine if iOS was my only OS, I'd feel pretty trapped and constrained compared to basically complete freedom on mac OS.

I never hold the tablet - a Kindle is the upper limit of what I'm willing to hold.

At home my (coverless) iPad always sits on a 3rd party stand, so I simply put the stand on my lap. And maybe have a coffee in hand. And maybe a plate with a toast.