Touchscreen laptops are totally pointless. Absolutely nobody's using the touchscreen of a laptop even if it has one - and rightly so.

Apple's latest M1 laptops are way faster than almost any Windows laptop out there, so they definitely aren't "years behind". In fact there's a strong chance that it will be Intel- and AMD-based laptops that will be chasing M2-based laptops come 2023.

But... yes, iPads can't be productively used as full computers in their present form. It can be done but it's not worth the hassle. If Apple allowed the installation of macOS on M1-based iPads, though, then it would be a completely different story. The company doesn't want to do that, so here we are.

You will have to acknowledge Apple as a rising power across the IT industry as a whole now, I'm afraid. Their silicon has been a long time coming, but it delivers. I object to many of this company's choices myself, but this is undeniable.