[JohnBooty]

    Sure it might be faster but in context it doesn’t feel
    like a significant improvement.

So they can't just make things faster in an objective way. They have to make you "feel" a certain thing.

    It stands out and it’s pretty clear that Apple wants 
    people to “upgrade” to the Max which comes with a +$800 margin.

Few thoughts there.

1. Well, they certainly won't mind if you buy the Max. No argument there.

2. As for Apple's intentions I think they were extremely honest during the initial presentation itself. The market for these machines are primarily M1 and Intel Mac users. Very few people upgrade their laptops every single year.

3. The M2 lineup was a bit weird, right? If I am remembering correctly there was not a clear case for the M2 Max versus the M2 Pro. I think the M3 lineup is a bit of a correction there. While I certainly wish every chip got like, a million times faster... the product tiers here seem less confusing.