That’s what I would likely do too in your position.
I just recently switched from the M1 Mac Mini to an M2 Max MBP, and the difference was huge, but I also use other resource intense tools, so it still made sense.
And I agree, not upgradeable RAM is the biggest pain point for the M series, though I understand why they do it (and it’s not only for business, though selling +8GB ram for 200$ probably doesn’t hurt there either).