Honestly - we (as a community) will have opinions, but tablet-buying is totally consumer-driven.
Only the buyer can really find that middle between needed performance & price.
If you know anybody with a ConsumerReports account, you might want to ask them to print you out a list.
I have one and use that to research and buy all my major projects.
(CR rates everything on a scale of 1-100. 80+ is GREAT, 70-79 is GOOD. 60-69 is OK. And anything below 59 is shit. Kind of like school grading.)
Generally - for Tablets in the 9-Inch Screen and Larger:
80-85 Apple. These will range from $400 - $800.
75-80 Samsung. These will range from $300 - $500.
70-72 Lenovo. These will range around $300.
65-70 Amazon Fire. These will range around $80-$150.
60-65 Asus. <$120
59-below Acer. & small-screen Lenovo and Huawei. <$100
Unsurprisingly, ratings are a "you get what you pay for".
If you do consider the high-end Apple, ConsumerReports gives its ultimate "BEST BUY" tag to these:
$460. Apple iPad (4G, 32GB) 2017. Score: 82
$430. Apple iPad (128 GB) 2017. Score: 82
$330. Apple iPad 9.7 (32GB) 2018. Score: 80
*The Microsoft Surface laptop/tablets are all $1000+ and get ratings of about 67-72, so I don't think that's "value" for the OP's needs, FWIW.