Thanks Amish. And sorry if I sounded angry. I followed your advice and checked my iTunes on the PC that I use to sync my iPad. Unfortunately, it's not there. I synced regularly(before the update), and as far as I knew, that was the backup procedure that would secure me in case of hardware failure, so in fact I did backup, best as I knew how to at least. Never really ocurred to me to backup to a place Apple could not get their hands on, because I honestly never thought they would erase my data like this on purpose. I sent feedback through that link, as I'm sure a gazillion people must have. Not holding my breath.
Thanks again, I really appreciate it.