The loads of people I tried to refer to what I said: millions (10 of millions?) of tablets sold. This to illustrate what I was getting after: questioning existing things is useful to get something better.
At the moment directories are being done away with in very restricted devices (tablet is no pc). Seems to working out.
I don't see the relation to a tablet and productivity applications. I'd assume you'd do more data entry in something like that, which is pretty annoying if you have to do that with an on screen keyboard.
In any case, you mention "deaf ears", while at the same time calling things "toy" without (it seems) having tried it. I find it a little bit ironic.
When the iPad was introduced, the presentation made clear that it was made for only a few use cases. It (iPad) is not a big smartphone, nor is it meant to replace a laptop or a pc. So don't expect things to be the same, at least in the iPad that was not the intention (I guess that is also the reason that iPad is selling better than Android tablets.. though never used a iPad/Android/Plasma tablet).