If you’re having trouble getting a Mac or iPad to connect to a hidden SSID, you’re probably doing something wrong, or there’s something wrong with your router because I and several other people I know connect to them all the time. Heck, my brother in law has a hidden wifi network at his home and he doesn’t connect have any non-Apple devices to connect to it.
I have read up on it. Unless they changed something in the newer iPads what I originally stated was not just my experience. The older iPads at least were either totally incapable of connecting to a wireless network that didn’t broadcast its’ SSID, or were so maddeningly intermittent that it simply was not worth the effort and they (earlier iPads) would never remember network settings that were manually entered.
I tried several times to get the thing to connect and I read several forums that all stated the exact same thing at the time - that it just wasn’t possible to connect to a network that didn’t broadcast the SSID - even manually.
Maybe things have changed in the apple world since, but I just don’t like all the restrictions of apple products to begin with.