You're paying for a brand. $4k macbook has same specs (if not worse) than a $1k laptop preinstalled with windows. M1 is a a joke of processor heavily marketed by apple as "the best", it is targeted at people who do nothing besides web browsing (the kind of people who don't need it, nor know what a processor even is and role it plays).
downsides of apple products:
1) closed down hardware
2) no right to repair
3) parts are hard to find
4) If your keyboard, screen, battery breaks and you go to authorized repair-shop with it, you will either get charged 50% of MSRP or be told to buy a new one with no possibility of repairing.
5) resource hungry (8GB is enough to have only a browser with few tabs open)
6) ARM processor (M1) - most of the stuff that used to work no longer works. The reason M1 is "so fast" is because it doesn't have (a proper) x86 architecture.
I owned few macbooks in my life and can say, besides user friendly GUI and apple logo, there is no reason to buy it.
Mac all the way! May be a slight learning curve, but once you used to it, you will love it!
Apple products are loved for their simplicity, simple GUI etc. There is no learning curve. The simplicity and user friendliness got to the point it started breaking functionality