For me at least the touchpad feels like a less precise channel that is only attractive due to portability. You never quite know where exactly the pointer will s

For me at least the touchpad feels like a less precise channel that is only attractive due to portability. You never quite know where exactly the pointer will stop when you stop moving your finger (the inertia of the mouse might somehow help with that feeling) We do know what must be objectively the most precise device - what digital artists use to create designs and paintings and its neither a mouse nor a touchpad :-). But it would be interesting to see if people have actually measured this. But indeed there is the more general concept of "control" and in this general sense any multi-touch device that makes use of more fingers opens in principle a larger range of interactions.