I had the 2012 nexus 7 when I was in school and I loved it. Used it all the time for just about everything including insane use cases like programming. Then I got my first phone in about 2014 and didn't really have much of a use for the n7. Its just like a phone only slightly bigger but less portable and no 4g. Since then I haven't been interested in a new tablet and it looks like the entire Android tablet scene died.

Its a real shame the android tablet ecosystem has all but died. Android is better these days then its ever been. Highly customizable, you can use the firefox browser with uBlock origin, excellent 3rd party password manager support(much better then iPad). You also have a really nice open-source app eco system. Apps like Termux make it possible for me to basically do my DevOps job from anywhere in the world with a portable folding keyboard. Android functionality is awesome these days compared to iOS. Even the split screen functionality on my Pixel 2 is great compared to my iPad.

I think the problem is that even the best tablet is worse than a cheap shitty netbook. Shitty netbooks can be had for $200. The fancy shmancy backwards folding ones, (into a tablet form factor) aren't that much more.

You know what's better than termux? OpenSSH, tmux, a proper term, a proper tiling WM, in X.org. Or Wayland or screen if that's your thing I don't judge.

Termux is just a linux container, it has OpenSSH, and tmux. Yes I agree that a full linux workstation is better then an android phone, but sometimes I like to go out with friends and family and I might still be on call for work, and I really dont want to have to carry around a bulky laptop. Termux is just an extremely nice thing to have on an android phone and there is no legit officially sanctioned method of doing these things on iPad other then iSH which isnt even fully in the app store yet, its only on testflight.