I'm not sure it's a dismissal, as in "an iPod Touch with a big screen" is quite a good pitch. Like even now, if we ever get 16" iPads it's just an iPad with a massive screen, but I'd be all over it.
I have an older version of one of the big iPads. The thing is that I never got into using it for digital animation/art that I envisioned doing at one point. And for routine travel content consumption stuff it was just bigger and heavier--but otherwise not a better experience.
I use mine (12" M1 Pro) as a portable music studio - touch screen is fantastic for this so I vastly prefer Logic on the iPad to the Mac, but it's mighty cramped even on the 12".
edit: so yeah, I agree with you