i'm totally ignorant and my unrooted tablet is stuck in a boot loop I have an unrooted Smartab ST1009x, which did not have ADB enabled.

After a system update, I think I interrupted an app update [I tried to disable the Google app while it may have been mid-update; I admit I wasn't paying attention.] 
It instantly rebooted and has been stuck in a boot loop ever since.

It looks like I could just do a factory reset, but I really want to recover some files from an art app, so I'd like to avoid that.

It seems like applying an update via an SD would repair the damage I did. 
Unfortunately I'm completely ignorant when it comes to programming. Everything I find on the internet about doing this presupposes I rooted my machine or I have ADB good to go -- I don't! Heaven help me I'm not even sure what version of Android I'm running.

Does this mean I'm out of luck?
If not? Maybe there's a good walkthrough (for someone unfamiliar with Java and programming, real outsider idiot-friendly stuff) that I didn't find -- can you please send me a link?
I have been through the same situation
 After the factory reset, I faced a similar situation. You can take out the SIMs and memory card and do a factory reset. After the factory reset, latest Android update pre-installed with Google Siri which has speech recognition and face recognition technology and I can assure you, once you get used to it, it can do wonders.
Regards,
Mithun