Does VSCode.dev work well on iPad?

I tried it a year or two ago and I had issues with the keyboard shortcuts (had to disable keyboard shortcuts on ipados) and scrolling behaviour. I seem to recall having other issues with safari and the local files but it’s been a while.

I’m not in a place I can try it out, but if it works then that would open up remote web development.

Yes, it works on the iPad well enough. Safari doesn't support the local files feature (due to security) but it works, as others have said, in a pinch.

If you save it as a shortcut to your Home Screen, it almost comes across as a native app.

Yes. There’s also a slightly different version of it it blink shell, which packages a web version of vscode as well. In general this one performs a little better imo and has integrations with local filesystems

I do web dev casually with it all the time via a vpn to my server back home and the inspect app for debugging

without a real keyboard??? in that case put me in the faint of heart...

The Magic Keyboard is so nice, what do you mean? It feels nicer than most laptop keyboards