No you don’t want it to happen. You want a chassis that is appropriately designed for the chip. But I know that Apple customers find it normal as Apple has a long history of designing computers that are not appropriate for the chip inside.
And not all chips are thermal throttling. Apple Silicon computers (except for the MBA and the 14 MBP with the 32-core GPU) are not thermal throttling. The fans don’t even turn on some Apple Silicon models.
That is what is attractive about Apple Silicon computers in general, they stay silent and cool while delivering all that power. Laptops with a RTX 3080 sound like jet engines by comparison and are super hot. If you let computers like the 16” M1 Max MacBook Pro thermal throttle (and thus being hot and loud like PC’s), what’s the point then?
Like you said - in order for the M2 chip to not throttle in any meaningful fashion, you will need a form factor more akin to the 14" MBP, which would amongst other things, make it thicker and heavier.
However, for a product like the MBA, its form is its function. People want a thin and light form factor that they can easily slip into a backpack and bring around with them. Which means no fan and a smaller thermal envelop. To them, it's an acceptable tradeoff, because the MBA still has exceptional battery life, and the M2 chip continues to deliver great performance even when throttled.
For me, I like that my M1 MBA is able to run zoom on 9 hours on a single charge while not plugged into a power outlet (maybe a bit less now that the battery has been through 1.5 years of wear and tear). While staying cool enough that I can rest the laptop on my naked laptop without any discomfort whatsoever. Whether this is despite the M1 chip being throttled to whatever extent, I literally could not care less.
Suggestions like adding some thermal pad to increase the rate of heat dissipation completely miss the point as to why the MBA exists and who the product is for, and I for one am glad that these people are not real engineers working at Apple.
