> in this case you avoid concerns about lighting the battery on fire.

You can also do that by visiting iFixit to learn you were the battery is.

I also would drill from the back. That way, you don’t have to take off the screen first (if you fear drilling too far, put duct tape on the front of the screen first, to decrease the number of glass fragments that would be created)

By having a targeted drill bit insertion only on the memory chip, you're reducing the amount of unusable e-waste. Everything else about the iPad can be recycled into other broken iPads, including the metal back. The main board remains a potential donor board for specific chips that could be replaced.

Bashing an intact device with a sledgehammer does not materially increase the odds of data destruction occurring, as the relevant chips are protected against sharp shocks and blunt force trauma.