Jason, you wrote "Apple and the army of developers writing apps for the iPad are seducing us with a simpler, faster experience for a lot of the best stuff on the Internet." I disagree because the simplification removes the richness of the full set of functionality which are only available on an actual operating system. The apps for many of the popular websites (ex: Facebook, OpenTable, Groupon) maybe simple, but unless one only wants a quick look at the info, these apps are fairly useless. These simple apps do not have the functionality set of the corresponding websites.
One day, most people will wake up and realize that today's tablets are just overpriced toys. The reason: you said it, "simpler" experience.