You got distracted by the Rose Tinted Glasses Brigade, but I think you're absolutely right. On top of that, I think there were other design considerations — ho

You got distracted by the Rose Tinted Glasses Brigade, but I think you're absolutely right. On top of that, I think there were other design considerations — how to make iOS' scale up to iPad more easily (remember when Siri was in a little box in the middle of the screen?) to the point where iPad apps can now be adapted with a checkbox to run on macOS. I think the groundwork started in iOS 7.