For most users the M1 is fast enough that a nicer user experience (no fan noise) is more worthwhile than slightly better performance.

My friend recently purchased a MacBook Air with M1. There's no fan at all. It's incredible. It's a block of metal that just works.

I think most users would at least appreciate the option. For example, windows has power settings where you can adjust the clock of the CPU to however you like when plugged in or unplugged. Consider also that gaming has never been a silent prospect, on a desktop, or a laptop, and especially a game console. The switch is silent, but gamers know nintendo is compromising on graphics fidelity compared to competitors to make a silent handheld device, and it does get hot during use. I don't think people would mind if their fans spooled up when they are getting good frames at high graphics setting from their games, or at the very least had the option to select a more performant clock speed if fan noise didn't bother them. Fan noise doesn't bother me, I game with headphones like most enthusiast gamers. Apple gives you nothing right now like that, that I know of.

> I think most users would at least appreciate the option

The M1 Macs are the first and lowest-end Apple Silicon Macs we'll see. There's a reason they only replaced the cheapest devices with them so far - wait until we're done with the 2 year transition period and I doubt you'll have anything to complain about.

I think you're right, but it's not in Apple's ethos. As an example see the Apple Magic Wireless mouse that has its charging port on the bottom specifically because Jobs didn't want users to ever use it as a wired mouse.

For 20 years (ok, more, really), laptops have not been fast enough to do reasonable professional-grade photo editing using standard Adobe tools. The complexity of the algorithms being applied increases at least as fast as the processor power. So, put me down on the side of wishing they'd build a SKU that could be optimized for performance, rather than only power consumption.

(Sometimes a desktop is not practical, like on a remote photo assignment, but there is a power outlet.)

The Pro will be out within a few months.

> why the system isn't clocking higher if the cooling system is running so comfortably.

Because there's a upper limit on how much power (voltage, clock rate, etc) you can shove though a CPU before it starts malfunctioning or getting damaged by purely electrical effects, no matter how effectively it's cooled?

It's entirely possible Apple has set the nominal limits fraudulently low for business reasons, but there are actual physical limits here, and depending on how the CPU is designed/optimized, it's quite possible that it's easy to build a cooling system that significantly exceeds what those limits allow to be demanded of it in a significant range of cases.