Walmart shows new as currently out of stock, they only have restored.

A very old article, and if you follow any of their links, they are sold out. So it's not so apparent after all

I don’t disagree, sure M1’s don’t grow somewhere and at some point will no longer exist as new but this is such a disappointing laptop. At least could have had a redeeming quality like being significantly lighter. It’s just worse in every aspect.

Is it a better deal? A18 Pro seems to be somewhat more capable than an M1.

Maybe but It has worse screen, worse battery and worse connectivity.

Noted, but I’d still pick the better CPU.