"Apple is still definitely slowing down Macs with every single little release."
This was true for Intel Macs 2014-2020. I bought a 14' M1 Macbook Pro with 32GB of memory / 1TB storage and it absolutely flies. Best machine I've owned in almost a decade (2014 15' MBP).
I think it was true of Intel Macs largely from their underpowered GPUs. I remember Yosemite being rough on a late 2013 MacBook Pro because the Intel iGPU was awful. Likewise going to Big Sur on a late 2019 MacBook Pro when not plugged into power (and thus not using the dGPU).
Really looking forward to a M series chip built on N3E with dedicated raytracing cores (probably the AR/VR headset, followed shortly thereafter by the Macbook Pro line)
This was true for Intel Macs 2014-2020. I bought a 14' M1 Macbook Pro with 32GB of memory / 1TB storage and it absolutely flies. Best machine I've owned in almost a decade (2014 15' MBP).