I have to wonder how Apple plans to replace the Mac Pro - the whole benefit of M1 is that gluing the memory to the chip (in a user-hostile way) provides significant performance benefits; but I don't see Apple actually engineering a 1TB+ RAM SKU or an Apple Silicon machine with socketed DRAM channels anytime soon.
My bet is that they will get rid of the Mac Pro entirely. Too low ROI for them at this point.
My hope is to see an ARM workstation where all components are standard and serviceable.
I cannot believe we are in the era of glued batteries and soldered SSDs that are guaranteed to fail and take the whole machine with them.
16-32GB of RAM on the SOC, with DRAM sockets for usage past the built in amount.
Though by the time we see an ARM MacPro they might move to stacked DRAM on the SOC. But i'd really think two tier memory system would be apple's method of choice.
I'd also expect a dual SOC setup.
So I don't expect to see that anytime soon.
I'd love to get my hands on a Mac Mini with the M1 Max.
And unused RAM isn't wasted - the system will use it for caching. Frankly I see memory as one of the cheapest performance variables you can tweak in any system.
I'm finding I need to commit and print a lot of these. Logic's little checker in the upper right showing RAM, Disk IO, CPU, etc also show that it is getting close to memory limits on certain instruments with many layers.
So as someone who would be willing to dump $4k into a laptop where its main workload is only audio production, I would feel much safer going with 64GB knowing there's no real upgrade if I were to go with the 32GB model outside of buying a totally new machine.
Edit: And yes, there is does show the typical "fear of committing" issue that plagues all of us people making music. It's more of a "nice to have" than a necessity, but I would still consider it a wise investment. At least in my eyes. Everyone's workflow varies and others have different opinions on the matter.