If a 2017 Intel MBP is acceptable to you CPU-wise right now, M2 vs. M1 won’t make a lick of difference for you. That said, the M2 MBA case design is updated, and the screen is slightly larger. You may enjoy the newer design more.

You can get an M1 MBA on eBay for $650-750 with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage though, so that’s INCREDIBLY hard to beat.

Right now, two cheap 20 TB HDDs in a mirror. Use ZFS for the mirror and you’ll have ultimate data immortality. As long as both drives persist.

(RAID isn’t a backup.)

The M1 MBA is such a staggeringly better computer. You won’t look back. The only thing you could possibly miss would be 2” of screen size.

If that’s a 14” M1 Pro MBP as it appears to be in the photo, then even at $1,100 with that battery I’d say it’s a great buy.