[thewebguyd]

Swapping isn't a big issue on the apple silicon macs, the storage is generally fast enough.

I had an M1 Air w/ 8GB when it first came out, and although I haven't used Tahoe on it, it handled anything I threw at it no problem while swapping. Tons of Chrome tabs, mail, music, terminal, VSCode all open without so much as a hiccup. macOS also has really good memory compression compared to Windows.

Trying to do the same on an 8GB Windows machine would be an effort in frustration.

I do wish it had 12GB, but AFAIK Apple didn't make an A18 Pro with 12GB. I suspect if they refresh it in a couple years with the A19 Pro, it'll have 12GB of RAM.

[odo1242]

I feel like the 8GB limit is partially market segmentation. If they had a 12GB or 16GB model, everyone would buy that instead of the Air/Pro and they would lose money

[NetMageSCW]

Apple has never cared anout that. They would rather be the one to sell you a laptop than someone else. The issue is this was made to hit a price point many thought they couldn’t make. Doing so required some compromises.

[toraway]

Apple cares a lot about that. Their pricing structure across all models in any particular vertical are precisely engineered to keep you effortlessly moving up notches on the pricing ladder into higher margin models by selectively omitting/upselling specific choices.

For the Neo, it's:

  + $100 -> $699 Macbook Neo (well, I probably want Touch ID like my iPad...) 
  + $100 + $400 -> $1099 M5 Macbook Air (8 GB feels a little tight, but this new Air has 16GB plus a better CPU...)

For iPhones, currently the 120Hz vs 60 Hz "ProMotion" being locked to higher models, better camera sensors, Face ID etc. iPads also with screen variations, Pencil variants, Face ID, etc. The matrix of available options always have "holes" in the lower models that force you to bundle something you don't care as much about to get a specific missing feature/option at a higher price.