The audio popping issue is fixed, and Safari runs noticeably faster. After a few hours, it does get a bit slower, but it is still better than before. The entire update process only took a few minutes, and I did not run into the 45-minute black screen issue that others reported. I went straight from 12.2.1 to 12.5 and skipped the 12.4 updates because I thought it was a BS update. I was ready to send this 16" MB Pro back to Apple because I was so disappointed, but this update changed my mind.