In all likelihood, multitasking is probably a 'swipe up' gesture from the bottom of the screen now, similar to what Apple is doing with the trackpad in Mountain Lion's notification system.
I'm imagining a WebOS-style gesture, but the swipe action is from the screen edge, not the bezel.
</speculation>
I agree, though. Capacitive buttons are awful, especially on an iPad where there's so much room for an accidental press.
iPad already does that (off by default): four-finger swipe up shows the list of apps, and four-finger swipe left or right takes you to other apps.
Edit: and I think four-finger pinch takes you back to the home screen. The only real use for the Home button on an iPad now is for taking screenshots (remapping double-click the Power button could probably replace this)
Trouble with the pinch gesture is the iPhone. The gesture is impossible to use with one hand, and even with two hands, it's still rather awkward on a small (sub-7") screen. Remove the iPhone home button in favor of this gesture and you ruin the user experience. Leave the home button and now we've broken consistency with the iPad (which is one of the main selling points on the iOS ecosystem). Not saying they can't drop the home button, they'd just need a more practical way to do it (for example, webOS/BBX/Win8-style edge swipes)
In all likelihood, multitasking is probably a 'swipe up' gesture from the bottom of the screen now, similar to what Apple is doing with the trackpad in Mountain Lion's notification system.
I'm imagining a WebOS-style gesture, but the swipe action is from the screen edge, not the bezel.
</speculation>
I agree, though. Capacitive buttons are awful, especially on an iPad where there's so much room for an accidental press.