If my Safari did what yours is doing I'd consider it borderline unusable.
None of this is helping, and you're interested in settings so let's think about them. The relevant settings on my iPad are as follows:
General
AutoFill:
Use Contact Info > off
My Info > None
Credit Cards > On
Saved Credit Cards > None
Favorites > Favorites
Show Favorites Bar > off
Block Pop-ups > off
Extensions > None
Tabs
Separate Tab Bar > selected
Open New Tabs in Background > On
Close Tabs > Manually
Privacy & Security
Prevent Cross-Site Tracking > On
Hid IP Address > From Trackers
Block All Cookies > off
Fraudulent Website Warning > On
Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement > On
Check for Apple Pay > On
Settings for Websites
Page Zoom > 100%
Request Desktop Website > All Websites > On
Reader > All Websites > off
Camera, Microphone, Location > Ask
Advanced
JavaScript > On
Web Inspector > off
Remote Automation > off
Experimental Features > default settings used; I didn't alter any
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If I omitted a particular setting it's because I really don't think it's relevant. Most of the above shouldn't be relevant anyway; if anything is relevant it's likely to be either Extensions or Tabs. One or more of those settings are almost certain to be different than yours, so consider toggling them to determine if it makes any difference.
I'm using an iPad Pro, iOS 15.4.1 with copious storage.