I obviously count myself among the people who needs and wants creator capabilities, but for my technologically challenged family and friends there's no reason to learn and manage all the complexities of a classic computer environment if they just want a point of access to youtube, netflix, spotify and social networks.
I still shiver remembering the times of browsers riddled with search bars, trojans and antivirus software slowing computers to a crawl and people who's "good with tech" being dragged to friends' houses to see what's wrong with the computer.
I think it's a bit narrow to call label them content-consuming devices. Of course, they have limitations for activities like programming.
But the iPad is an excellent companion, since I use that to scrible around, consume media, photo editing, keep my music sheets, and all that stuff that would suck on Linux.
It doesn't need to be our only computing device to be appreciated, and not every computing device needs to be powerful.