LOL! Yes, yes, yes .. I'm sure anyone sophisticated enough to understand how to use iOS understands all that. And it's completely irrelevant to this discussion.
—
It's up to an
app to access external storage at the present time on iOS. iOS up to v12.x does not support generalized external storage (file system) access. That's
operating system level external file access. There are
plenty of device control apps that can read their devices' storage and transfer data bidirectionally, or at least from the external device to the iOS device.
For example, the Leica FOTOs app allows me to view and download files (both JPEG and RAW) from my Leica CL (or SL, or T/TL, or M10) to my iPhone or iPad. It also allows me to control said cameras.
Another example: My Light L16 models a DCIM file structure in its internal image storage, so I can plug it into my iPad Pro with a simple USB-C to USB-C cable and Photos knows how to read Light's DCIM exposure structure and transfer the JPEG files to the iPad's internal storage.
See photo below. (Photos doesn't know what the Light L16's high resolution image files are, so it can only transfer the JPEG preview files.) Photos' implementation of reading DCIM file structure on external storage devices is what allows the USB-C to SD Card Adapter to function for nearly any camera's SD cards...
What Leica FOTOs doesn't do is provide a
wired connection with automated capture and transfer of the image file from camera to devices (aka,
full tethering). And that's completely an app implementation issue, since external device interactions of all kinds operates at the level of the app implementation, not the OS.
I read that review of the iPad Pro 11-inch and laughed out loud. Most of the negative commentary in the review were based on the author's irritation that iOS 12 didn't do one thing ... generalized file access to external storage media ... which anyone with any brains could have told him wasn't available in iOS 12 with
any of the Apple mobile devices at the present time, regardless of whether they have USB-C or Lightning hardware connections.
G
GDG and Light L16
Light L16
ISO 640 @ f/15.6 @ 1/3 sec @ 150mm
Snapshot taken in my hall mirror with L16.
Processed to a 'Good' quality JPEG in-camera.
Transferred direct to iPad Pro 11-inch with USB-C to USB-C cable.
JPEG further processed with SnapSeed and uploaded to Flickr.com.