I'm sure Apple would love to offer tooltips as a bonus under their $99 Apple Pencil DLC. Frankly though, this is one of those usability things that just doesn't get fixed. You could also fix this by plugging in an external mouse, that doesn't make it any smoother of an experience. Maybe it was possible with Force Touch... we'll never know though, since that never went big.

The iPad Pro feels like a pointless response to products like the Surface Pro that don't even exist in the same market (or hardware quality) space. Honestly, we should have gotten an iPad Max that focuses less on power and more on the display/battery life. If they tossed an OLED panel on it, abandoned their dumb LIDAR dreams and priced it fairly (I dunno, $500? $600?) then they might have a modern classic on their hands. Instead, we keep running into these usability barriers that wouldn't be a problem if Apple didn't market this as a "professional" tool.

True, but only for users of the v2 Apple Pencil with the new iPad Pro. For folks with v1, or with an iPad/Pro that doesn't support hover (or who just use our fingers), discoverability will continue to be a challenge...