An M3 with 24GB of RAM will let you "engage in some light photo editing"...
What is this insanity. You can do perfectly fine with an M1 or heck even an i5 from 2019. You do NOT need an M3 with 24GB of ram do do some photo editing or even video editing. Get a grip people.... not everyone can regularly spend $1000+ every year for every new model of Apple gear (says someone who currently owns 6 macbooks and 2 imacs from the last 15 years.
Please have some sanity in reporting what these machines are most suited for or what level of processing power makes sense for average people.
Thanks!