By the time laptop form factor became somewhat common, yes, it was spreadsheets, word processing, and a communication suite (mail, file transfer, etc).

Those were the critical features that fueled laptops for several years, taking money from people who found a reason to work on the go. It was a considerable jump up from super tiny (but still used!) computers like Epson HX-20 or super heavy (luggables). The people using them for spreadsheets and word processing joined the field engineering and military applications.

Hell, laptops stopped being synonymous with "business executive" in popular vernacular only after 2000s.

I had a Toshiba T1x00 in my house (probably a T1000) and I can confirm it was able to do Lotus 1-2-3 and WordStar. Games were strange on the wide screen, and its other killer app was as a serial terminal.

The TRS-80 model 100, an earlier laptop, found a killer app as a word processor and communication device for reporters. Some were still using them into the late 90s.

And the ones that didn't really have killer apps are from a litany of defunct companies/model lines like GRiD.