I did have a quick look at the MaxTech video comparing same M2 machines with different sized SSDs (as recommended by @Zest28), and I have to admit that the performance difference when exporting videos or photos does look more significant than I have expected. We are talking about 20-30% difference in export times.
I do understand that many users expect similar performance from a machine where the only difference is SSD size. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the SSDs the only way to achieve this is artificially throttle the larger SSDs to the speeds of the slowest model. I kind of doubt that anyone would like that either.
Of course, another way to at least partially address this concern is increasing the SSD size across the board. It's not an unreasonable requests given the state of the market. Apple would lost some of their profits, but an argument can be made that they could increase the market share by offering better value for money (then again, this argument is far from being obvious and assumes that the price is the main detrimental factor AND that Apple can produce more laptops if demand increases). Of course, if Apple does this we will probably see Max Tech videos complaining that a 1TB SSD is 10% faster in exports than the 512GB SSD
I do understand that many users expect similar performance from a machine where the only difference is SSD size. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the SSDs the only way to achieve this is artificially throttle the larger SSDs to the speeds of the slowest model. I kind of doubt that anyone would like that either.
Of course, another way to at least partially address this concern is increasing the SSD size across the board. It's not an unreasonable requests given the state of the market. Apple would lost some of their profits, but an argument can be made that they could increase the market share by offering better value for money (then again, this argument is far from being obvious and assumes that the price is the main detrimental factor AND that Apple can produce more laptops if demand increases). Of course, if Apple does this we will probably see Max Tech videos complaining that a 1TB SSD is 10% faster in exports than the 512GB SSD