Hot take: removal of SplitView/SlideOver doesn't make iPadOS easier to understand. It simply changes the mental model of iPadOS (and introduces a functional regression with the lack of an ephemeral window option) from what it has grown to be over the past 10 years, ever since those features were enabled.

Would it have been the worst thing if Apple simply left the "default" the way it was like they did with the introduction of stage manager?