I also have an iPad Pro M1 2021. It runs iPad OS 14.7.1 from the box. Learning from my mistakes with an iPhone, I should upgrade it to iOS 15.6.1 and further later? At least some time, I shouldn't be concerned upgrading relatively new device, right?
I can’t tell you the exact impact - if there’s any - because I haven’t tried it, but I can tell you the historical aspects of it. Typically, the first major version might be okay. Performance-wise it probably will be, because if older devices are okay, this one is way too powerful not to. The issue is battery life.
Historically, the first iOS version is the safest. The iPhone 6s is fine on iOS 10, likewise with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The iPhone 7 and the iPad 5th gen saw a considerable impact by iOS 11 though, but that might be due to the fiasco that iOS version was.
If it were up to me, in the long run, it won’t make much difference in terms of app support. I’d leave it on its original iOS version. Two major iOS versions in, and risk increases exponentially; the iPad Pro 9.7 saw a considerable decrease in iOS 11, and iOS 12 only worsened it further (I can attest to that).
Maybe the M1’s efficiency makes a difference, and this is no longer the case (I’d be thrilled! I’ve been complaining about this and reading reports ever since I updated my first iPad, an iPad 4, to iOS 7. It never changed), maybe it doesn’t. Too soon to know.