I bought a 16" Pro thinking I would need it and realized I never do anything other than simple photo/video editing, occasional VM usage and browsing the internet. Returned it and used the $1000~ savings to book a vacation to the Caribbean instead.
I had fallen for the future proof fallacy when even than, the savings could have been used to buy another new MacBook Air in 3-4 years which would be newer than whatever 'future proofing' I can do now. I would rather buy a new and updated MacBook Air every 4 years with the savings than budget for a Pro model every 7-9 years.
I noticed no difference between using the Pro and Air at all, at least not worth $1000. This sub convinced me that the Air is what 99% of the population would need and is very powerful as is!
I've gone the other way compared to "future proofing" and started buying the minimum I think can get the job done and do it well. Best Buy had a deal on M2 MacBook Airs and I bought one of them with the base 8GB of RAM but upgraded the SSD.
I do some development work and was learning MAUI at work and my old 2012 MacBook Pro couldn't upgrade to MacOS 11 required to run the development tools for that.
I figured if I hit something I couldn't do with the MacBook Air within 30 days, I could take it back to Best Buy and upgrade. If I need to upgrade after the 30 days, I figured I can find a buyer and step up to a 14" Pro.
So far, this little M2 Air has taken everything I've thrown at it. I'm starting to tinker with building apps/games in Unity and am wanting to get into Mixed Reality on the Quest 3. I may need to upgrade sometime next year, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.