The front camera is 7MP (close to 4K) and records 1080p. I don't know of any videoconferencing software that uses more than 1080p, and there's always massive compression applied anyways which would defeat image improvements. The quality is more than enough.
There's also very little practical issue with it being on the side when in landscape mode. It just means that your eyes appear to be looking sideways rather than downwards (arguably an improvement, as eyelids don't move down -- much closer to how people actually look in an in-person meeting when not looking directly at you) and that your head is about 10% off-center. So a non-issue. I've never seen anybody even notice it in a conference call, much less complain.
Finally who is taking selfies with their iPad? That's what phones are for. It's too big to hold with one hand.
The common use case for cameras in the iPad Pro is actually the rear camera. iPads are being increasingly used as professional tools in shooting production-quality video as well as all sorts of other commercial applications.
So I think the balance is quite right.
I've had to do meetings and interviews using the front-facing camera in environments where I don't have control over the lighting and the results were not great.
tl;dr: phone webcams have DMA, laptop webcams are using USB.
I'd say a more likely (and harder to fix) explanation is that the phone ones can be deeper; laptop ones have to be very slim to fit.
Also, I used to be 100% remote, and I WFH plenty, so I'm on videoconferences all the time. I do not perceive the need for insanely good cameras for this.
Selfies, maybe, perhaps Instagram influencers need super-high-res selfie photos and movies.
All that being said, maybe there are uses I haven't even imagined for an iPad that has a better front-facing camera than rear-facing camera. But for my current use cases... I would say not.
As to video conferencing, it depends on what you're doing. If you're presenting a meeting and are being projected onto a conference room's TV/projector, the quality matters.
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<=============>And, guessing, I would imagine people use this sans keyboard >95% of the time. So they gear it for that. Or should they put two cameras on it?
I highly doubt Apple was oblivious to this, but there are always compromises.
As to quality, the quality of this camera is equivalent or better than the overwhelming majority of webcams. Maybe people are doing xxx streams or something, but for a corporate meeting this is about three tiers above the average.
What I want from the front camera is mostly good light sensitivity and color rendition. I don't need more than 1080p video on it though. It feels like it should be possible without making it very expensive. If it isn't possible, then for an iPad I'd sacrifice ALL the rear camera functionality for just a slightly better front cam, in a heartbeat.
In 2017 they did start shipping a 1080p camera on iMac Pros, but that hasn't made it to portables.
I wish there was a way to take notes on my iPad and join the call from my iPad. This it the main thing that keeps me from making the leap 100%.
If anything, I think videoconferencing really needs to move towards more abstracted forms of interaction instead of trying to accomplish crystal clear video. Evidently, remote classrooms are finding it easier to do lectures via Minecraft than Zoom or Skype.
With the kinds of advances in deepfakes and realistic looking face rendering we're getting, there isn't as much reason to be sending that much data over the network. You'd need a camera to capture things like writing on a markerboard, but just for conferencing and getting body language pseudo-MoCap would do fine.
Better quality (lower noise) video reduces compression artefacts (or alternatively bandwidth requirements), because video codec doesn't need to waste bandwidth encoding all that high entropy noise.
They keep on adding more powerful/fancy cameras to the rear that people likely under-use in the common case, while the front camera that is commonly used for work, video conferencing, selfies, etc remains on the wrong edge and is under-powered. It is almost farcical with the new keyboard setting the top to the non-camera edge.
The front facing camera should be the premiere camera on the iPad, and should exist on the top and side, with triple microphone array (top, left, and right). Scrap two of the rear cameras to offset the cost.