Its original $499 launch price was a shock to the market because all other tablet computers were priced like luxury laptops. Apple came out with a large touchscreen device for the price of a PDA.
It’s a stark contrast to the Apple Vision Pro which is barely useful at a $3000 price point.
Tablet computers at that time ran full Windows, came with a keyboard and had pen support which the iPad didn't for many years. In fact iOS didn't even have a file manager until 2017, or mouse support until 2019.
There was the big expensive Newton, and chunky Windows CE devices with keyboards that looked like micro-laptops. The Palm initially felt more like a toy compared to them, and it never got all the features of the Newton for example.
It's definitely just a high priced concept, and maybe that's all it'll ever be, but I'd push back on the barely useful bit.