My parents got me this swanky graphics tablet for my birthday

Don't feel bad about it. Reward them by using it a lot, practicing, learning and improving - and sharing with them some of the work you've made with it.

(Obviously still get them nice stuff for mother's/father's day too)

Thanks for the reply. Looking at getting my kid something that she can use on different devices. Though she seems to be deadset on wanting an ipad. (ugh)

XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro. Not OP but I have the exact same one and it's pretty decent for the price.

The good:

• 1080p 60Hz display with better-than-average-to-my-eyes color rendering (nothing to compare it to except my other monitors)
• Battery free pen (powered by the tablet itself)
• 8192 levels pressure sensitivity,
• Touch position sensing has a resolution of 4K (meaning it can detect that you touched an area 4x smaller than a display pixel)
• It can also detect what angle you are holding the pen at on two axes, although this detection does not work perfectly (it's perfectly fine for simulating the edge of a pencil, but around the very edges of its detection it gets a bit jumpy, and if you tilt one way then the other without letting up first it forgets where straight up and down is until you've gone way past it). I'm willing to give it a pass for this since it's not easy hardware to implement and most virtual brushes don't use that data anyway.
• The 8 buttons are rebindable in software to send any keyboard shortcut you want
• Works plug and play on Linux (no driver installation, no setup, just plug it in, launch Krita and it works)
• Also usable as a non video tablet if you connect the USB cable but not the HDMI (if for some reason your computer doesn't have a spare HDMI port)
• The pen comes with 8 replacement tips if you wear it down and you can buy a replacement pen if you lose it

The bad:

• Obviously this is not an Android tablet or anything like that. It cannot be used standalone; it requires connection to a PC to do anything at all (that said it works quite well plugged into my laptop with the clamshell closed)
• It is not touchscreen. It cannot detect touches from your finger at all; it only detects the pen
• This means no pinch to zoom/rotate -- that big red dial on the left (which detects about 25 clicks per revolution and just emulates a keyboard pressing Ctrl+Plus/Minus each click) is your only way to zoom in and out unless your art software provides another one
• Connects to the PC through a proprietary HDMI+USB-A to USB-C cable that doesn't really work with anything else, and if you connect it directly to your PC via a C-to-C cable, it will work in touch-only mode (screen is off) even if the USB-C port on your PC supports video out (most laptops do). (you can buy replacement cables from XP-Pen though)

All in all not bad for a $250 graphics tablet.