Smart Cover Functioning IOS7 to IOS8

Question

I'm a 30+ year software professional, and use Windows, Linux, MacOS, and IOS on a daily basis.
I bought my wife a 64 GB iPad Air2 (I'll call it iPad4) with wifi/wireless for Christmas.  I bought her an iPad2 many years ago (16GB, no wireless), and she uses it like gangbusters.  However, she absolutely hates changes.  I backed up the iPad2, which runs the last IOS7 version before the IOS8 release, on iTunes and restored it to the iPad4.  The email restore didn't do what I expected, but she got over it.
The issue is the closing of the smart cover.  It has really changed between IOS7 and IOS8, and took a turn for the worse.  In IOS7, you can close it, hear the click, and it goes off.  If you opened it in a little bit it would come one without having to enter the pin.  If you left it closed for some time, you would have to reenter the pin.  This is the way we like it to work.
The IOS8 does not appear to have that level of control.  If you want the iPad to turn off when you close the cover, if you open it immediately you have to enter the pin.  If you don't have the lock with pin enabled, when you close the cover the iPad is still on draining the battery.  There is no combo of settings that allows you to close the cover to turn it off and not have to enter the pin if you reopen it in a short time.
Looking into this issue on the forums, I see other people have the same complaint.  It appears that Apple combined 2 settings into 1 in IOS8 so you no longer have the same amount of control.
I would like to see them restore the settings to how the cover closing/locking worked as it did in IOS7.

Answer 1

Your iPad Air 2 has Touch ID. This is the feature which allows defining fingerprints and using your fingers to unlock the iPad by touching the Home button.
The relevant settings are all in Settings > Touch ID & Passcode - USE TOUCHID FOR:
- iPad Unlock
- Apple Pay
- iTunes & App Stores
if you turn iPad Unlock ON here then the only choice for Require Passcode is Immediately, however, if you turn iPad Unlock OFF the choices for Require Passcode will be Immediately, After 1 minute, After 5 minutes, After 15 minutes, etc. This is what you are used to.
The change in behavior of the iOS is due to the presence of Touch ID not the level number.
No one here knows why Apple made this change, but, perhaps, their thinking was that, since one can unlock the screen simply by touching the Home Button with one or another finger, everyone would, of course, want the more secure Require Passcode=Immediately.
I tend to agree with you that this assumption on their part is unjustified. You can give Apple feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html