I’m curious to know if I could CONFIGURE with the iPad or if I would need a real computer.
iPads will only allow you to install software from the Apple Store, and to my knowledge, there is no full node software in the Apple Store. If you were to jailbreak your iPad (generally a bad idea), I don't believe Bitcoin Core is compatible with the iPad iOS.
It isn't. iPadOS (and iOS) run a form of Darwin kernel compiled for ARM64, and Bitcoin Core has no such architecture for it. The closest you can get is Linux on ARM or MacOS (which also uses Darwin kernel) on x86_64.
And even if there were such an app, i[Pad]OS limits the background activity that apps can do, so you would have to keep Bitcoin Core open in the foreground all the time if you want it to work, otherwise it would not sync if you were using other apps. Also, and this part also applies to Android, there would be no easy way to make a bitcoin.conf for an app. Using the GUI to configure the Core client would be the only sensible option.
You'd have to get a desktop/laptop or server machine and then connect to it from SSH using an app like Terminus if you want to
control, but not run, a node from an iPad, or any mobile device.