My experience is the same. I only owned one Intel MacBook Pro.
Was the only one I needed thankfully. Missed the whole port reduction and power bar mess.
I love my M1 Air. It is the first general purpose computing hardware that felt like a real advance. I measured that two ways:
How much closer to my mobile is it?
How much faster is it?
The Air feels like a Mobile Computer if that makes any sense. One USB port expander to serve as a dock of sorts later and it makes for a great desktop experience.
When using it on the go, it has that light, powerful feel much like running my phone does.
Great machine. It is easily my favorite computer Apple has ever made, 8 bit greatness and an older age aside.
Mine is sticky. As in when others get hold of it, next thing I hear is usually, "oooh" and then it takes some time for it to come back!
I got mine for a song. Sweet deal, but it is the 8GB 256GB configuration. Not too big of a deal, but more internal storage would be nice. Maybe I will send it out somewhere to get a boost.
Would have already, but I worry a little about those services.
Compiling gcc multi thread a few times would be enough.