I think to understand the M1, you have to be a Mac laptop user. For years, Mac laptop performance lagged years behind high-end desktop performance -- they have been stuck on 14nm+ process chips with a mobile power budget, while desktop users have had 7nm chips that can draw 500W with no trouble. As a result, what M1 users tell you is fast is what PC desktop users have had for ages. A Threadripper and 3090 will blow the M1 out of the water in raw performance (but use a kilowatt while doing it, which a laptop obviously can't do).
At my last job, they issued us 2012-era Macbooks. I eventually got so frustrated with the performance that I went out and bought everyone on my team an 8th generation NUC. It was night and day. I couldn't believe how much faster everything was. The M1 is a similar revelation for people that have stayed inside the Mac ecosystem all these years.
Yeah after years of company-issued Macbook Pros I built myself a Ryzen 3900x dev machine last year and it was like waking up from one of those dreams where you need to do something urgently but your legs aren't cooperating.
Given the benchmarks I've seen I imagine the M1 would be a somewhat comparable experience, but using a desktop machine for software development for the first time since...2003(!) has really turned me off the laptop-as-default model that I'd been used to, and the slow but steady iOSification of MacOS has turned me off Macs generally. Once people are back to working in offices I'd just pair it with an iPad or Surface or something for meetings.
I've been high-end desktop Linux user all my life and Thinkpads were my primary choice for laptops. Last two years I've been using x1 carbon gen3 released in 2017 so it's not so far from current-gen Intel laptops.
Yeah Air on M1 cannot beat triple 1440p 164HZ monitor setup with high end desktop hardware, but it's still damn impressive. It's has slightly better 16:10 screen, more performance than any of current x1 thinkpads and Air that I bought is absolutely silent too.
Also might be in the US you have comparable prices on Thinkpad or some Linux-friendly laptops, but where I live I bought Macbook for 2/3 of comparable Thinkpad price. I've used to buy used ones, but now they became much more expensive due to high demand and much less of air travel (less smugling I guess).
I would never buy a Thinkpad outside of edu-deals. They cost less and get 3y on-site support. It's a good deal, but otherwise they are overpriced for what they delivered recently...
Right now, I am torn between a *FHD*, AMD X13, 16GB RAM/500GB SSD for about *1000€* and the Air 16/500 at 1400€. I hate my life for that decision right now...
I think it's a moot question, since they're not comparable here. Laptops have inherent thermal limitations (not just power) that don't allow something like the Threadripper to be workable.
If you wanted a fair comparison you'd wait to see what processor Apple puts in their Mac Pro in 2-3 years, and compare that to whatever is the Threadripper equivalent then.
Any desktop PC, even with the beefiest Threadripper, won't run the fan at full speed when you're just browsing the web or watching videos.
Heck, if you're not squeezing the absolute maximum performance from a chip by overclocking (I am :P) you can run a 5950X on a regular tower cooler with the fan curve never coming close to 100% and it will still be incredibly fast.
That is fine and I get it. Just realize there are lots of people that need/want more power, variety, compatibility with a lower cost. Water cooling is plug and play these days for desktop rigs. The gaming laptop market has become shockingly good for professional level CAD/Engineering apps with the industry focused on drastically reducing noise levels (albeit still quite loud in comparison to fanless). Trade offs... trade offs as far as you can see...
When you shrink nodes you can either increase performance, cut power, or go with some mix of the two. TSMC's 5nm is 30% more power efficient OR 15% faster than their 7nm process.
Even evolution within the same process node can bring noticeable performance improvements. Launch day AMD Zen 2 (TSMC 7FF) chips could barely clock to 4.2GHz, ones manufactured months later can often do 4.4.
