I have the M1 Pro with (8 + 2) cores. But seeing as the cores are identical I suspect with the base models with (4 + 4) cores you'd see very similar performance except you'd be looking at 5x rather than 10x on multicore workloads.
Have the cheapest M1. It flies and the battery life is stellar. The only downside I would say is it's only 8GB of RAM. If you're doing anything with electron development, it's a no-go. You'll need a minimum of 16GB.
It's an incredible machine though. The perf and battery life remind me of the upgrade I got when switching from a HDD to a SSD for the first time. It changes how I use the device.