Literally the only material difference between using my M1 Air and my work M1 Pro is the somewhat-better port selection on the Pro. Though even that doesn't have the single-most-useful port it could (aside from USB-C): a USB-A port.

The extra ram in a pro comes in handy at a certain scale, but the price tag is oof.

few weeks back a professional ios dev looked at my m1 pro and ask why i had an air instead of pro. i might go air when i finally upgrade bc the new pros are giant compared to the m1

You mean you have an Intel Pro? There's been no changes to the pro chassis for Apple silicon, M1 Pro 14/16 are the exact same as the M4 Pros.

I assume they had a M1 MacBook Pro rather than a M1 Pro MacBook Pro

Ah right, I forgot they had an M1 variant in the older Pro chassis.

Really? I have both an M1 Pro and M4 pro and never really noticed a size difference.

on reflection they had one with an HDMI port. maybe that was the difference