THIS is the reason why Linux will never be a mainstream desktop.
No I think it's a strength. When MS forced Me, vista, Win8 on it, we recoiled and puked, but some people were forced to use it because they lacked options.
When Ubuntu forced Unity on us, we all just dropped Ubuntu and carried on. There has definitely been a loss to the community, Ubuntu was a solid distro for a while, but it's gone, and we still have options.
For Mom and the unwashed mashes, the iPad does what they need it to do (i.e. very little). For people getting work done, we need choices, we're willing to suffer a little to avoid suffering a lot.