With all of the discussions about air vs pro, varying RAM/storage, and upgrading chips I'm wondering what factors can be used to argue for an upgrade. Most discussions and videos I see talk about two main use cases: programming and "creative work".

In the next week or so I'll be buying a MacBook to replace my Dell Inspiron 17-3000 series and I feel like a "base" user surrounded with suggestions to upgrade if you're going to use more than 3 tabs and messenger.

I'm a grad student studying physical therapy and my laptop will largely be for school purposes: up to a dozen tabs, my note taking app (notion or I might try obsidian), where I'm taking notes from (a web lecture and PowerPoint imported to onenote), and a couple productivity/messenger style apps. Occasionally I use a 3d anatomy app but generally not for longer than half an hour at time.

Are there metrics outside of coding, Photoshop, and video editing to help me figure out where I fall along the upgrade spectrum? I would like this to last me a couple years into professional work while minimizing cost but man is it hard to figure out what I'll actually need.

Tldr: there should be a sliding scale of a handful of functional activities to help us less computer-literate differentiate between upgrade factors within MacBooks.