This is true, but anyone creating a document in Word/Excel or Google Docs/Sheets or watching a video on YouTube or Netflix etc would not likely notice any difference in performance for the extra $1,500+.
The new MacBooks are red hot and very nice for sure - but Internet bandwidth, useful FaceTime/Zoom video bandwidth and human keyboard or speech entry or listening speeds have not increased much so the extra raw CPU performance is not useful even if it is fun.
As I type this, I’m currently working on a 2013 MacBook Air i5 1.3GHz, 8GB RAM with a third party 512GB M.2 NVME SSD running MacOS Monterey (on OpenCore) with numerous Brave and Safari browser tabs open; along with Apple Mail, Notes iMessage and Calendar open. Battery life is 6-8 hours and I get full WiFi bandwidth downloads and uploads from my 1GB FIOS Internet connection. There is no discernible lag time on 1:1 FaceTime or Zoom calls. For under $200 this is a great value that will suffice for nearly all casual home computer users and give the same exact MacOS experience from Monterey.
Those doing things like video rendering, CAD, blockchain calculations etc are a different class of user - but a much smaller available market.
I agree with you in general, but it always amazes me when I use one of my older computers or someone else’s... how different the user experience is even if all I am doing is mundane tasks. I am not using a particularly hot computer, but it is much more capable than my older computers and it becomes very evident even on boot up. It is not so much that it is more “fun” but the experience tends to be much smoother and more pleasant.