Safari keeps getting more efficient with displaying multiple web pages with faster graphics, on my M1 based Macs its now doing speedometer 6.1 at 439 which is a lot faster then Crome ever worked. Yes there are still some graphics codec support I like to see it do such as AV1 which is still experimental.
Where are you getting speedometer 6.1? I'm seeing 2.0 everywhere, including e.g.
https://browserbench.org/
I do NOT run full-screen mode but on external displays, which may or may not have some impact on results, but M1 Max 64GB nets Safari 298 and Chrome 323 - essentially the same, Jetstream 237 vs chrome 280, ... I don't think Chrome has been 'standing still' on performance. I much prefer Safari, although Chrome is a tier 1 browser for most businesses as well as our apps, while for many Safari still is not. I use Choosy to split between work and personal links and browsing so that e.g. anything I click on link-wise from Outlook email, Teams, Slack, ... all go to Chrome (work browser) vs others to Safari automatically.
Back to the releases - eh. I'm fine with 'internal improvements' types of releases, and wish we'd have another Snow Leopard type release focusing primarily on performance. The IOS-ization of MacOS (control panel layout, various others) leaves me a bit cold, and most of the added features over the past few MacOS releases have been pretty much - who cares for me.
Universal Control is pretty neat when it is working reliably, although nowadays it's a transient thing at best for me, used briefly when I get a new/new-to-me system and am replacing the existing one. I do occasionally use the extend displays to iPad to add to my daily setup of MBP alongside a 28" ultrawide (seems like was added a few OS releases back), but those are the only remotely standout features for me over the past few releases (other than of course, Rosetta2 is pretty amazing from an engineering and usability standpoint - non-trivial and it does generally 'just work').
So yeah, I don't see anything in this release making me 'need' it, while I need to ensure VMWare Fusion and compatibility remains for a few other bits of software before I'd consider it. (not expecting much in the way of internals changes, but - never know).
iPadOS on the other hand - Stage Manager is a mess I wanted to like, but it effectively blocks part of some apps like Teams with it's controls, making it literally impossible to hit the 'send' button when using Teams, for example, full-sized. Yes, I perhaps could work around this via app settings (not positive offhand, Teams has always lacked in obvious settings, e.g. enter -> sends message, and when it initially implemented it's own noise cancellation but gave no way to disable it (and nearly cost us a large contract as it continued to mute my boss and I during a critical presentation when the company was pushing from WebEx -> Teams (never again)), but basically it didn't 'just work and work well,' it got in the way and cost me wasted time.
It does feel Apple 'innovation' may be slowing down at least in some areas - Studio display with wonky camera, let alone the pro with the 'gold' stand purchase. FineWoven phone cases that made it into stores instead of cancelling or fixing them. Vision Pro is cool tech and has possibilities, and am happy to see MagSafe make a return for laptops, but it's feeling overall a bit stagnant on the phone/watch/macOS front to me.