> (8 years before the introduction of the Apple Pencil)

I have briefly used one of the old PDAs with Windows Mobile and a stylus, and i have an ipad with an apple pencil.

They are two completely different experiences.

A stylus is clunky, particularly if you consider styluses as they were back in the day: pieces of dumb plastic with a specific shape to fit in the PDA itself, to be used on dumb resistive touch screens.

the apple pencil (as well as other modern styluses) are completely different, and work on capacitive touch screens.