Thanks for all the responses to my questions. I was lucky to get my iPad back, and figure the thief was most likely a tourist (tracking showed it settled down at a downtown hotel, and it was returned to the BART lost & found within two weeks because I had remotely wiped it). In the meantime, I bought a replacement iPad also with 3G. Once returned, the original iPad went to my wife after iTunes restored all my data. Having wi-fi only would suck because of the difficulty finding free wi-fi; having 3G works everywhere especially in a moving vehicle and has saved me while using gps map services when driving in strange cities I visit.
Turning off "Find my iPad/iPhone" is a pain now, because of the forced entry of a password and receiving an email alert. There are times when one does not want to be tracked. But it's a good thing to have to deter thieves.
I use the Personal Hotspot in my iPhone for my iPad when traveling.
It's not perfect, as once the iPad drops the connection, the iPhone won't let it reconnect without disabling the personal hotspot and reenabling it to make the iPhone "discoverable" again.
And, you don't get the GPS accuracy, either. I've suggested to Apple that they allow the GPS API on the iPhone to be accessible from a connected iPad. But, they haven't even replied to my suggestion.