If they gave this a battery, removed the base, and allowed apps boy that would be a killer product

Agreed. The video they showed tried to downplay it but I would imagine very few people have a hole in the middle of their kitchen island/counter to feed power through (even weirder for the wall-mount option). A rechargeable base or base-station would make more sense to me.

Currently I have an older iPad on a stand I can move anywhere in my kitchen I want and use Paprika on it for recipes.

No Paprika. No Overcast. No Spotify. No Plex. No Home Assistant. etc...