[Samsung Galaxy Tab S8] knosso:
Massive thanks to all of you for your replies, especially to @SavXL for the detailed reply.

In the end I decided to give it a try and see what happens.

I choose the 10.4'' size because it is definetly a bump in dimensions and weight compared to the 8.4 i was using. The main bummer is that the screen is a literal downgrade from the one i was using before. Still as you said for an LCD is not bad at all and the colors are decent. It is however true what it was told online in a couple of other places: "turning on the blue light filter totally destroys the screen"... such thing would not happen with an oled.

I went with more storage and with the keyboard cover because there was a 50% discount on both the upgrade and the keyboard. What can I say, the device feels solid however I was worried to scratch the lens without the cover as it is literally rubbing on every surface without a cover. The keyboard is surprisingly nice to type on for what it is, keep in mind that still if used as a desktop attached to a monitor it makes sense to have a 20€ membrane or 60€ mechanical keyboard at least. The difference with the official tablet keyboard is massive. The track-pad is just trash. unfortunately there is no better way to put it. A thinkpad or dell from 2007 will have a better track-pad. With a bluetooth mouse and the touchscreen thankfully the trackpad can be ignored. The software keyboard improved a lot to the point where for now I'm not replacing it with my normal "Swiftkey".

The pen is surprisingly natural to use and surprisingly.... small. It is strange to say because it seems massive from the pictures. But I've noticed it slips while writing a bit more than a normal pen. Maybe i find a "case" for it that increases the diameter and grip but still fits in the space dedicated in the cover. Pen gestures in the air are just a meme so I will not talk about them. Still it is a joy to use.

I didn't try dex in a real way so maybe I write an additional message in the next weeks after I thoroughly try it. For that I will source an adapter and try it on a 4k monitor, I really hope the tab S8 has improved resolution handling..... being limited to HDMI1.4 bandwith in 2022 will not be funny. For what concerns the multi window the limit went from 4 of the original tab S to 3 of the S8 ...... now I get that we have a small screen and it may be stupid to use more than a couple of applications in parallel... but I would like to be the one deciding that on my device. One major annoyance with the split screen support is that when resizing windows the content blurs... hopefully I can find a way to disable that crap because it truly slows down the interaction with the device. In general the multi window behaviour improved a lot, but the way i interact with windows is still strange as if we were still in the windows 3.1 days where we hadn't figured out a way to properly grab windows, resize them, move them, snap them. This awkwardness is a lot reduced by enabling the multiwindow line even on full screeen windows. That helps to feel the environment less forced.

Speaking of slowdowns: I was shocked that after 8 freaking years Samsung didn't manage to have a fluent interface. Don't get me wrong it is mostly fluent but full of small hiccups that I may accept on a cheap underpowered device but not at this price range. There is a lot of preinstalled bloarware, most of it can be removed or disabled so for now I'm accepting it.... after I get more confident with the device I will definetly debloat it.

Alt tab between the last 2 applications takes ages. It takes literally seconds. By disabling all the animations in the developer options the situation becomes a lot better but still the point is that the alt tab works correctly when you want to alt tab between several applications but not when you want to alternate between the last 2. Try on your normal computer. You shouldn't see the list of applications when quickly alt tabbing. If you see that, it then becomes distracting and slows the workflow because then you need a couple seconds more to focus on what you were doing in that app. Continuing with the alt tab I have to find a way to make the recents smaller and/or vertical and/or fit all in the screen. I have no use for big previews that show the content of the app. I opened that app, I am already aware of what I am doing with it. Another problem with the alt tab is that there is no text. If i have 2 documents that look very similar to one another you can bet that they have a different name so I'd rather be able to identify them at a glance rather than squeeze my eyes and play "spot the differences".

The sidebar to quickly open applications in split or floating mode is very handy. I have to use it more to get used to it but for now i can say that i wished the icons were smaller, that there was more compact content, and less "pages". If it takes me more than a couple of seconds to scroll through the pages then I might just as well go to the home screen and do there what I wanted to do. Maybe there is a way to customize it more than what I noticed so far. This seems very much a phone app ported to a tablet rather than a proper tablet app.

I was almost forgetting the fingerpint. It's fast. I'm glad I chose the smaller device for that as well. Under-screen sensors in the past have been slow, though I don't know how much they improved in the past couple of years.

Video calls are great. The front facing camera has a decent contrast and dynamic range, obviously better than windows devices that cost twice as much. It is also positioned as close to my eyelevel as it can be on a small device. I have yet to try the microphone in a proper way but considering I didn't have to raise my voice too much to be heard on the other side it seems good.

On the software side I'm happy. I had a couple of issues with skype where i cannot move the automatic floating window that appears when I go home during a call, dropbox decided to limit me to 3 devices all of a sudden so I will just use google drive from now on. I've downloaded a bunch of drawing apps including the ones suggested by SavXL. so far so good.

In conclusions: Is this device worth it? Yes if you use the pen. Everything else on this device is excellent but not unique. Otherwise If you have a decent phone you could just grab a cheap lapdock or tabdock and you will have an amazing experience. If you want more proper windows or a more proper browsing experience you can grab a chromebook. It will still have the same hikkups in the interface but at least is because you saved some money. What makes this tablet unique is the pen, which is amazing.