Its not that the RT is a bad device, Microsoft choose to price it the same as the iPad and not undercut it. Remember Motorola that released the first Android tablet at an even higher pricing than the iPad and failed miserably?
RT actually does a lot more than the baby apps on Android and iOS tablet that's only for entertainment. It can runs Office, full system management, adobe flash, etc, multi tasking, etc
Not to mention, you can also jailbreak it to run recompiled desktop apps like VNC, Audacity, Putty, FTP, NotePad++, Z Zip, etc
Desktop apps ported to Windows RT - xda-developers
RT is basically a full blown Windows that's capable of actually running anything recompiled for ARM. Its just restriction put in place to make developers develop more touch based apps.
Up till now I still carry my Surface RT around, depending on my usage. If I need Visual Studio I'll bring the pro out instead. RT can well last over 8 hours of continuous usage, and a full day.