Your article:
"A paltry 8 GB of RAM may have been enough in 2020, but it most definitely isn't now. Students, particularly, often have to keep multiple tabs open for research and other purposes, which will surely make the system struggle to some extent, if the rumors are true."
Is honestly COMICAL at best!! ROTFLAMO!!!!
Given GoogleAI claiming that the median webpage is <=3MB how exactly is the "8 GB of RAM" an issue? YOU must be thinking of WINDOW'S installs with included BLOATWARE!!
Later on you mention that the new model might ONLY have Apple M1 like performance however even for a 'entry level' device is HUGE PERFORMANCE (IE: Awesome!!) especially with MACOS!!
NBC's bias and lack of meaningful understanding of computer requirements are clearly showing here.
Typed on a 2013 era i5(2C/4T)/8GB/256GB Macbook-Pro 13".
(BTW: with >100 browser tabs open)