Is raw perf considered Apple's moat? I think it's their software. I would buy a MacOS laptop even if the performance is ghastly ... in fact, I did: the MacBook Neo.
I don't like Apple as a company or how they act around locking people out of the devices they buy. I'm willing to pay double the cost of a MacBook Pro for anything that can run Linux, similar performance to M5, have a decent battery, good touchpad, be silent, have a good display, be light and portable. It doesn't exist. MacBook's simply have the best hardware, but terrible software/philosophy of software. So I'd say…
This is Zenbook A16 right now, with recent patches posted to Linux ARM mailing list that support it in full.