Even if they’re technically sufficient in terms of specs and my use case is simple, if I see things like animations hitching, times when the tablet is strugglin

Even if they’re technically sufficient in terms of specs and my use case is simple, if I see things like animations hitching, times when the tablet is struggling (e.g. while running updates), the screen being sub-par (low pixel density, bad viewing angles, etc), etc it’s going to bug me. On tablets being disposable, it depends on the user. The only electronic device of mine that’s regularly in harm’s way is my phone, and it’s insured so if it gets smashed I have a new one in a day or two. Been carrying iPads as auxiliary devices while traveling for years and never had a problem.