I just bought a used MBA M1 8/256 for a very reasonable price, to replace my 2017 MBA. I think I'll be using the latest Ventura on it, here's why; I did try Sonoma 14.3 last december when I got my M2pro mini, for a few weeks. I had some very serious issues with Appstore and System settings search not working, among other things, so I went back to Ventura.
Apart from new emojies and screensavers, there is nothing that I miss, and I'm quite convinced that I'm not more exposed to security issues just because I'm one step behind on OS versions. I've lagged more steps than that without problems before. Nothing wrong with it. Don't believe those who say 'always be sure you're up to date'. They don't call it 'the bleeding edge' for nothing.
Just my POW.