I agree. Why is that almost every time a base model goes on sale, someone has to insert a hyperbolic post about how you can't doing anything but surf the web with this configuration?
Meanwhile, millions and millions of people use the base configuration everyday for college, work, and home, and they are delighted with their computers. Apple enjoys a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and this would not be possible if the base models were useless.
I have zero problems with my base M2 MBA. I don't need a huge amount of local storage because we have the 2 TB family iCloud plan that we share with 5 people. All devices are set to optimize local storage for photos and documents. Everything is backed up. Zero problems.
My kids went through undergrad and grad school with base configuration MBAs. Zero problems. College students write lots of papers and reports. They frequently do statistical analysis (R) and modeling with spreadsheets. Class presentations are common. They certainly did more than just surf the web with their computers.