I have an M1 Max (work) and M1 Pro (private), but I seriously considered getting an Air M2. Why? It is much more compact and lighter than the MacBook Pro, which is really nice for travel. But yeah, the M1 Pro with discounts was to enticing, because I could get one with 32 GB RAM.
I recently picked up an m2 14". It's fucking delightful, it's true that it's a pound heavier (which is about 40% heavier). But in a bag that pound doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot to me.
The inclusion of the HDMI port, and generally how far along we are in the usb-c transition, means that I can probably get away without one of those mini dock dongles that generally are no more than a few usb-a ports, an HDMI port and maybe an ethernet port. I have a couple of tiny usb-c(male) to usb-a(female) in my bag for interfacing if I need to.
Previously I had a 13" M1 work machine and it was also great but skated a bit too close to the 'air' sun. It was almost perfect except I felt like I had to carry that stupid mini-dock dongle with me just about everywhere given that it only had 2 ports, one of which was probably going to be for power. (and no magsafe... boooooo)
