depends on your workload. RAM and passive cooling are the most likely issues but afaik an M2/M3 with 16GiB still performs a lot better than an similarly priced x64 laptop. Active cooling doesn't mean no throttling either.

If you don't explicitly want a laptop, a 32GB M2 Pro Mac Mini would be a good choice I think.

Personally i only have used MBPs so far.

But the M-series Air are not remotely comparable to the old Intel Airs, that's for sure :)