I mean, I guess less so now that everyone has phones and maybe an e-reader, but... that's not such a weird use case. That's basically how I spent the later half of high school.
Isn't the real questions why we allow devices or their makers to decide the "intended use-cases" and accept that many other use-cases are often near impossible. The PC revolution was about a general purpose computers, and laptops should imho still be general purpose computers; not machines for which some overlord in Mountainview or Cupertino checks on every button pressed whether I am allowed to do what I intend to do.
Politics aside, I am the only one who has the impression that with every new release of macOS or Firefox features get removed, that enabled me to personalize and optimize my workflows before?
That's not what laptops are for.
I think that's a typical snide HN/Stack Overflow-type answer, and I don't mean it rudely, but it does have some bearing on this conversation. What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? I'm not sure "reading from 'a few' [several] feet away, while I'm laying down in bed" is in that top 10 list.
Are there devices better suited to that form factor? I don't know.