I used to always buy MBP's, but the new gen are all those super thick and heavy models. I tried one and couldn't get used to the thickness or weight. At that point I may as well get a desktop.
I ended up buying M2 new MBA (from intel MBP), screen size similar enough, thickness good, weight good. And M2 is fast enough for 99% of the things I do. I did max the RAM to 24GB and wish there was more sometimes, and would love a faster SSD. Bot overall very happy.
I just replaced my 10(!) year old 15" MBP with a new 16" (M3, but I needed it at the time, and the difference between M3 and M4 is not enough to worry me).
It's almost exactly the same size and weight, I prefer the shape of the old MBP, but the new one is perfectly fine.
However, the old one had replacement SSD and was on its second replacement battery, not sure I can do that with the new one.
I don't know if you already know this, but speed of SSD is dependent on size of SSD and also by how much of the drive is empty. Once it's more than 50% full it starts slowing down. I created a separate partition to deliberately leave 30% of the drive unallocated.
I ended up buying M2 new MBA (from intel MBP), screen size similar enough, thickness good, weight good. And M2 is fast enough for 99% of the things I do. I did max the RAM to 24GB and wish there was more sometimes, and would love a faster SSD. Bot overall very happy.