I got this tablet (8gb 128 no 4g) after looking and failing to get the Xiaomi pad mini as it's not available in the UK.
Having moved from a Samsung s22 ultra with it's big screen to a smaller Xiaomi 15 I wanted a small tablet for home use.
I had wanted the Xiaomi as it was a great spec but after that the alternatives where either expensive or had poor support, as Samsung are promising 7 years of support I felt that was safer than some of the competition of similar prices.
So far (after a few tweaks) I've been rather impressed with Sammy's cheapest tablet, everything I've asked of it it has done. I am not a big gamer but have linked my Xbox controller to it and managed to play grid autosport and Xenowerk with out any problems.
With a tweak in developer settings most apps can still be transferred to SD card, and although after updates they get put back on internal storage having installed appmgr III it puts them straight back.
I really don't know how the chip set will cope if I'm still using it in 7 years time but so far for the price I think it's probably one of the better tabs around.

Samsung could've added a better chip and s-pen at the least. Now they have the iPad Mini, RedMagic Astra, Lenovo Legion, and Xiaomi Pad Mini/Redmi K Pad to compete with. Samsung is dead last in the 8 inch tablet category and it seems like they dont care :(

Your assessment is very thorough & your writeup was attentive. Enjoyed the read!

Regarding support.

Samsung says:

QuoteSecurity Update Period (Valid until)

    30 September 2032

This long period is thanks to EU regulation valid from June 2025. All new device must be supported at least five years after end of the sale.
September 2032 is 7 year away, so a new version of this tablet will be released in 2 years.