For me at least, it's an excellent trade off. I haven't had an iPad with a home button for years, and I can't imagine why I'd want to give up screen real estate

For me at least, it's an excellent trade off. I haven't had an iPad with a home button for years, and I can't imagine why I'd want to give up screen real estate or device size for a button. The swipe interface works perfectly and does the same thing.