I don't suggest the problem is that the hardware can't be "pushed and used", the problem is that the hardware is being artificially limited by Apple for some unknowable reason. (Well, the reason is knowable, but I'm sure some would dispute it anyways. It's very clearly an extreme defense of their 30% cut on all software that runs on iOS devices.) This is not a question, it doesn't matter what people are doing with iPads, it really is happening. A good example, the first iPad with hardware virtualization support in its CPU could initially run VMs provided you had a jailbreak, but then Apple entirely removed the virtualization framework from the following iPadOS update.
There is no particular reason a general purpose computer should be "not for me specifically" in terms of what you can do in software. In terms of design, sure. But not in terms of what you can do in software.
(I have a suspicion the same reason is responsible for why you basically don't find open source software on iOS devices the way you would on even Android or Windows; it doesn't make any money to take a cut out of.)
In iPadOS 26, more extensive multi-window multitasking like Mac was added.
The quantity of windows you can keep open at once depends on your iPad’s SoC.
If you have a newer Pro iPad with more memory you can keep more of them open and slow down happens further down the rabbit hole.
The hardware is being pushed and used.
As another example, the iPad has pretty intensive legitimate professional content creation apps now (Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and others).
So there are people out there pushing the hardware, although I’ll join those who will say that it’s not for me specifically.