RAM is something where you either have enough or you don't. When you have enough, adding more doesn't really get you anything. When you don't have enough, per

RAM is something where you either have enough or you don't. When you have enough, adding more doesn't really get you anything. When you don't have enough, performance tanks. The integrated nature of the M1 Macs gives them a much better ability to predictively swap unused content to SSD and make the most of the available RAM when things get tight while multitasking, but if you have a single task that needs 17GB and you have 16GB it's going to suffer a lot compared to if you had 32GB. I wish Apple (and everyone else) would give up on the ultra-thin crap and make a real Pro machine that returns to upgradability at the cost of a few extra millimeters, but for now since you're stuck with what you start with I'd recommend always going at least one level above what you think you might ever need during its expected useful life.