This is all interesting info. I’m an avid Amazon customer, but have never actually bought an Apple device from there. Have always gotten from either Apple directly, or through secondary markets / discounts (eg. Swappa).
But I’ve multiple times recommended to ppl to get discounted Apple items from Amazon official / especially for older products (like the current 2021 14/16” MBPs) that are over a year old now but still sold full price at the Apple store.
I may have to preface the advice that returning Apple products are significantly different / more inconvenient than most other Amazon returns.