We don’t know how much Apple pays for their RAM… Period.
Absolutely no way is Apple going to be paying
more than small businesses, unless Tim Cook is an operations idiot, which famously he isn't.
Until you find out you like to do some memory-heavy stuff (for your job for example) or play an AAA on your 2000 euro M3 MBP
I really don't think there are many people who were expecting to play games and are now shocked it isn't a good device for that, though.
As for for job purposes: I've given even a sales guy a 16 GiB config. He probably mostly runs web apps and MS Office on it, but 8 just seemed a bit cramped to me.
Funny that not that long ago that the speed of SSDs (when it was much faster than Windows laptops) was handwringing for the Mac fans. But now suddenly it does not matter anymore.
I think you're overindexing on what some randos on the Internet say. Nobody ever chose a Mac because of its SSD speed. It's nice that, for example, the M1 Pro MBP came with a 7 GiB/s SSD — but would I have bought it if it had only been 2? Yes. Would I have spent $100 extra for 7 instead of 2? Probably not.
But we aren't even talking about that. We're talking about the
low end of Mac laptops. There, SSD speeds matter even less. Or they would, anyway, if it weren't for the RAM having been quite limited for a while, causing a lot of swapping. But even so, I just don't think it makes a huge difference. Swapping is slow and should be avoided. It's fine-ish if it happens during idle, but it destroys your performance if it happens as you're working.
Yes, but haven't you never been asked for "what computer should I buy"?
Sure, and if the scenario was "I have a budget of $1,000 - $1,500, what Mac should I get", ca. 2023? I would've said absolutely upgrade the RAM to 16. You can always expand the storage externally, but the RAM you're stuck with.
Whereas now, the base config is… fine. I have other quibbles with the Air (just the other week, a client sighed because they couldn't connect a TV via HDMI; luckily, we have an adapter; also, 256 GB SSD is starting to get a little silly, too), but in other ways, it's a good computer. The SoC is almost overpowered, the RAM is fast, the case is high-quality, the trackpad is best-in-class, and so on. So if someone were to ask the same question today, I'd say stick with the 16, but upgrade the SSD.
I have not recommended these base macs for colleagues because of 8GB, and they did not bother to get the 16GB, because the base already stretched their budget...So there you go, another lost MBP/MBA sale or two down the drain. Now, I would happily recommend them the base models. Of course, anecdotical. But even people not in the know can see "8GB" Macbook Air for 1200 euros, or for the same price you have a decent 16GB windows laptop. And will chose the latter because they have heard that ram matters. Apple must have felt it in their numbers, upped to 16GB and now is outpacing the PC market again.
I think you're overestimating how much pressure they're feeling from the competition, but overall, yes.