As an iPad owner I would probably use it for taking handwritten notes if the handwriting recognition was reliable enough for text search. But it's not, and the search feature in Apple Notes is the absolute minimum to be called "search". It can only search from the beginning of words, so typing "oo" will never find "foo". Better apps exist but they all come with a subscription of some kind.

I am clearly not the target audience for the iPad. Being restricted to apps and what they allow you to do while asking for money at every corner is not my cup of tea.