> it's an e-reader

It isn't though. It's a note taking device and marketed as such. Heck, when it was released, the e-reader functionality was even more deficient than it is today and barely mentioned. It's a note taking device and marketed as such. They improved the e-reader aspect a lot since then, so now it's kind of usuable as one, sortoff, but it's very much not an e-reader first.

To be fair to you, they are pretty keen on stressing that, while marketing within the e-reader segment.

Conceding the point to you though means that there is still clearly a gap for those of us who want to read technical manuals (unless there is a device that somebody can recommend) between the brilliant linear-reading experience of e-readers and the smooth larger screen random-access UX experience of tablets like those you cite.

Absolutely, though the gap is somewhat niche. Even for e-readers, the amount of people who still care about e-ink is getting smaller. In my peer group everyone moved to ipads or whatever (I don't know how they can stand it, but...).