They excel at battery life, sure, but also at heat and power efficiency — things that are really fucking important to a good laptop. Show me another fabless laptop that can transcode 4K video

Power efficiency is battery life. Battery tech hasn't changed that much. And literally any laptop with a decent GPU these days can transcode 4k video without breaking a sweat. This is not new.

but the existing Mac user base seems to be upgrading less frequently, which says to me that something else has changed. Now what’s a big change that’s taken place in the Mac line in recent years? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the pricing.

Yes, something has changed. The economy. People may have been able to afford $3-4k laptops a few years ago, but not now that food, gas, cost of basic goods has gone way up. The pricing may not have changed, but they're now priced outside of what most people would be willing to pay when they have to spend so much on more important things.

I just don't believe that a majority of the Apple community will stop upgrading if they see a more powerful M3. There's still a lot of situations where the existing Apple Silicon line falls short, particularly in gaming and 3D graphics. Those who can afford it will upgrade. We've seen Apple users upgrade for less if you look at how many people used to clamor for the latest iPhone.

Apple Silicon isn't the end all, be all of laptop technologies that's going to make people satisfied forever. That's not how the tech market works, especially not for Apple users. The only thing that's different is the economy.