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!
Apart from the grounding issue, my 16" Pro has done things alone that most of my peers use a laptop AND a desktop to get done. But yeah, if you're not processing a ton of realtime video, or saturating thunderbolt with network traffic or something, then the Air could do any 2-3 of the 8 things I'm doing at once admirably. And I'd probably be less pulled in all directions. lol.