Trent01
A Fountain of Quest Ideas
I think the Doylist reason for using a lot of PADDs is a combination of set designers wanting things to look recognizably like paperwork but sci-fi and not yet knowing just how crazy digital storage density would get IRL.
In a blatant attempt to bring things slightly more on-topic for the thread, this design is going to end up producing a lot of data for research papers to go on those PADDs, eh?
I'm sure with all the SCIENCE happening on a single ship every lab has a dedicated PADD-terminal considering how bulky the TOS padds were.
We'd probably even have more data being processed if we somehow fit extra lateral sensors onboard. When Enterprise D had to undertake a big sector survey, every minute of sensor capacity was fiercely contested prior to the trouble of the episode.