Matt Birchler, once again writing about macOS allowing touch interaction:

I contend that pretty much the entire “I wish the iPad did more” narrative is built on a wide and undying desire for macOS to get touch input and more flexible and portable hardware. Think about it, if I could walk into an Apple Store today and get a MacBook Touch with a hyper-portable form factor, an M4 processor, and a beautiful OLED screen, would I then also complain about the limitations of iPadOS? No, of course not!

There is no doubt that the Mac line up is crying out for some more flexible hardware to make it more interesting to more people. I wrote a few days ago that I wish there was more experimentation done with sliming down the hardware and pushing the limits of the form factor into more areas — notably an ultraportable version.

To bring some subjective experience in here, our sales team used to all use iPads and the entire reason I was ‘that iPad guy’ for a while was because of this. However, we as a company have outgrown iPadOS and hit the limitation of Shortcuts reliability. As such, they’ve all switched to Lenovo Laptops to be able to mark up documents still, but also get more desktop like features. Had there been touch Macs available, these would have been number one on the purchase list.

Read into that what you will, but I am sure more users than you think want a richer computer market with macOS. Would users regather buy a macOS device with, as Matt highlights, a “hyper-portable form factor, an M4 processor, and a beautiful OLED screen” than an iPad? I am not sure all would, but whilst Apple has been willing in the past to cannibalise their products, a la iPhone and iPod, modern Apple is a very different beast.

Apple knows that some users would, and that is precisely why Apple holds these two markets as far apart from each other as they can. For them, they rather you buy both devices, at the risk of loosing some sales to those that choose one over the other. I have never bought an iPad, be it a pro or otherwise, because it is powerful nor because of its screen. I buy one because it is portable, flexible and fits into how I want to use it.

There are some people who use an iPad because of its strengths, and even if a mythical macOS device existed, they would not stray away. However, there are far more people that expect more from their device than an iPad can provide.