Adam Savage did an interview with one of the prop masters of the show, and he brought up the "privacy" issue and agreed that it sucks. But if they used "realist

Adam Savage did an interview with one of the prop masters of the show, and he brought up the "privacy" issue and agreed that it sucks. But if they used "realistic" pads, he said 1) they would have to move the camera around in awkward ways so that we could see what the characters were seeing on their screens, and 2) most of what we (the audience) would see would be the black/gray backs of these pads with nothing interesting on them. So it was an intentional choice for convenience and visual effect, rather than an attempt at "realism". Sounds like they totally agree with your statement, though.