I’ve got the iPad Pro and I am finding it to be surprisingly productive in my workflow. I used to rely almost exclusively on the iPad for work, and even wrote a fair chunk (most?) of my dissertation on it. At the time, I found a mixture of PDF Expert, Dropbox, Evernote, notesy (synced through Dropbox to Scrivener on the Mac), VoodooPad, DTTG, and Pages to be quite effective (when Pages got footnotes, that helped a lot).
How I got here (tl;dr)
As my teaching load increased, and my responsibilities inside and outside of universities grew, I found I needed a much higher level of security (mainly for other people’s data that came through my hands) than Evernote could (or would even consider) offering, so DTTG (and DTPO on the Mac) became a lot more critical to my workflow. VoodooPad became abandonware, and I spent more and more time with the Mac (the Macbook made it a lot easier to work anywhere). I actually didn’t expect the iPad Pro to be of much use. I just wanted the Pencil for marking up papers and other documents. I’ve been thrilled with the Macbook, and even if I cannot use it in many situations (in meetings, standing in front of a classroom, traveling, etc.), it has still been quite effective.
The iPad Pro Works
But, a couple of weeks after getting it (the 9.7), I think it is fair to say that I now do about 80 or 90% of my work on it (as I used to, but this time, with fewer pain points). It is nowhere near as flexible or powerful (mainly limited by iOS) as my Macbook. But, it is always with me, and a lot of apps have improved considerably over the years. Basically, I’ve found that the closer I work with Apple stuff, the better off I am (in my workflow). Pages is inferior to Word in terms of functionality, but does what I need, and is a lot easier (and more enjoyable) to work with on the iPad. Numbers has never been very pleasant, and it is somehow less so these days, but it does what I need (I tend to keep my attendance and grade records separate – attendance in iCloud and grades unsynced on my computer; I just don’t feel comfortable putting data like that unencrypted onto the cloud). Keynote is great for the relatively simple presentation slides I use – I’ve never been into flashy transitions and so forth anyhow. For more heavy-duty formatting and functionality, Microsoft products generally come out ahead, and they exist on the iPad, but I think they are still a poor fit for the environment.
Apple Notes
The big surprise has been Apple Notes. It is a real app now. I had know idea I would like it, because it is still shockingly primitive in terms of sorting, organizing, searching, formatting, and exporting content. It does, though, have reliable formatting, excellent support for the Pencil, a rock solid sync (not so in the past), and one-touch encryption / decryption (exactly what I need). My biggest problem with it at the moment is that I need to get stuff out as PDFs to save into DTPO for archiving / organization (finding connections via the AI). I have given up trying to write my own script to get everything to export as PDF files, but I am on the hunt for one (anyone want to help?). Once I get this export thing figured out, I am all set. A cool alternative to Apple Notes is GoodNotes, which has fantastic handwriting recognition (inferior to Evernote’s, in my experience, but secure without syncing to the cloud, so possibly the best product out there for the security-conscious). The less worried you are about security, and the more willing you are to make use of the cloud, the more you will get out of the Pro. I am probably an outlier for using the cloud so little (a little iCloud, a little Dropbox, and a lot of Spideroak).
DTTG
DTTG I am mainly using to sort, organize, and search data. To the OP’s point, with the exception of a nasty RTF bug a year or so ago that converted my Japanese notes to gibberish, it has not had any significant data loss / corruption issues (beyond user error), as far as I can remember. It isn’t quite there yet for me in terms of content creation. How can DTTG step up and compete more effectively with Evernote and Apple Notes? Pencil support. I don’t even want to suggest this, because I know that adding support for another feature will delay the release of DTTG2, and it is more important to get that out the door than have support for everything under the sun. After using the iPad Pro, though, and seeing how the keyboard, iOS, and Pencil combination work so well (finally, the iPad seems to be realizing its potential), I can see how this might be a game changer (it has been for my workflow, but I cannot speak for everyone else, and I don’t know how the Pro sales are doing). And, if possible, DTTG needs to find a way to rationalize / streamline the iPad experience. This is something that Evernote (to a significant degree) and Apple (even more so) have managed, but often with the sacrifice (unnecessary, in my opinion) of functionality.