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Battleships, with all their faults, were king the sea until aircraft carriers proved they could sink surface ships better than battleships could. Unless there is something that can perform the same role, but better, they will continue to be used, even if they are vulnerable. There is nothing else that can bring large volumes of accurate, direct fire to bear while being protected from most munitions.
They are protected from things that their alternatives aren't. An alternative is squishy humans providing that direct fire themselves. The squishy humans are vulnerable to the same things the tank is, but in addition are also vulnerable to small caliber bullets and light shrapnel from grenades. Furthermore, the squishy humans cannot charge quickly or bring as heavy of weaponry to bear as the tank.
A tank does something that no other platform does better, the ability to move quickly, bringing heavy direct fire on the target, while being protected from munitions that everything else is vulnerable to. No, they aren't perfect, but if your argument is that a tank is too vulnerable, meanwhile all their replacements are even more vulnerable, well, you are left with using the tank.
Yeah, certainly agree there. Their use will be more and more limited to niche circumstances. Exploiting breakthroughs and pushing on positions you reasonably believe don't have ATGMs might be their primary purpose going forward.
If we are able to develop an effective weapon to counter drones and ATGMS, it may bring back much of the tank's lost effectiveness. Laser weapons are starting to become a thing and some active protection systems do exist, though it is questionable how effective they are in combat in their current state.
Modern tanks are what, $5-10 million each? Drones, these days, are in the $500-10k range.
As a complete layman who doesn't have much idea what he's talking about, I'd be curious if 1k drones would be more effective at destroying targets than 1 tank.
The main difference is the ability to take and hold territory. Aircraft are great at blowing stuff up, much better than tanks, but aircraft cannot capture a position. Same thing with the drone, a drone is absolutely better at blowing up targets in a trench, but those drones cannot capture the position, a tank can. Both systems are important, both systems have their own role.