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I was in the LCD camp for several years, until eInk hit a certain threshold of pixel density and front-lighting got refined a bit. At the same time, smartphone screens, specs and battery life were improving, so that my last couple smartphones made a tablet redundant for tasks other than reading. Now, the tablet mostly gathers dust while the KPW2 has a reserved spot in my go bag. A tablet would be fine for reading, but the Kindle is just a little easier to carry, a little easier to hold, a little easier on the eyes, and a lot more likely to be ready-to-go with my current read the moment I whip it out, no matter how long it's been or what I've done in the interim.
Granted, tablets and ereaders alike are 100% lifestyle tech. They're not necessary for anything, so how useful they are depends entirely upon how you use them. If you have compelling reasons to be carrying a tablet and no vision issues compelling you to go eInk, then reading on a tablet is probably the way to go. If either a tablet or ereader would be too much baggage or certain to be lost, stolen or destroyed, then sticking with a smartphone might be your best bet. If your discretionary income is truly marginal and you'll have no other computing/internet resources, dumbphone + tablet might deliver the best value.
My own situation has changed at least as fast as the technology in the six years I've read ebooks. There were times when I had significant commutes on public transit, times I worked from home, times I commuted by car, and now I walk to work. My income and the proportion of that income a dedicated reading device would represent, have varied considerably over that time. Even my reading habits, novels vs. periodicals vs. graphic novels, fluctuate in ways that influence what devices I'll carry and which I'll buy. It may be mostly fallacious thinking to try to shape anecdotes into trends in our little backwater of the tech world.
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