My second suggestion for 16-core was M2, also. $100 less with 1Gb, and with 10Gb it would be $100 more than you paid. i.e. two of the 8-core M2 Minis with 24GB RAM each would do about twice as much work as the high end Mini M2 Pro alone, sometimes less than twice the work, sometimes more. The same is true of two M1 Max Studios vs one M1 Extreme Studio for the same price. 2 less powerful machines spank one more powerful machine every single time, and one M1 Extreme Studio is definitely NOT worth two M1 Max Studios, same as one 12-core M2 Pro Mini is definitely NOT worth two 8-core M2 Minis.
Everyone is drawn to "the best," and that's where Apple fleeces and makes its money. Pretty consistently forever, the best buys from Apple are never the high end configurations. We may feel secure in what our choices were, doubling down on affirming them, but we definitely pay for it.
I don't see a 16 core M2 or any Studio's with an M2. I was drawn to the latest chip Apple has produced. They put that chip in a small headless form factor. I shopped for a Macintosh computer and judged whether I wanted the motherboard bandwidth of the Mac Studio or the latest chip with the Mac mini.
I'm sorry I disappointed you. I have retroactively looked over everything you have said and doubt I would do it differently. If this machine turns out to be such a dog I can get another one to pair it with as you have suggested I do with 8-core. Finally are you speaking from first hand experience or benchmarks?
I think the disconnect is that you are trying to get as much processing power as possible and I'm trying to understand how much processing power currently exists.
My second suggestion for 16-core was M2, also. $100 less with 1Gb, and with 10Gb it would be $100 more than you paid. i.e. two of the 8-core M2 Minis with 24GB RAM each would do about twice as much work as the high end Mini M2 Pro alone, sometimes less than twice the work, sometimes more. The same is true of two M1 Max Studios vs one M1 Extreme Studio for the same price. 2 less powerful machines spank one more powerful machine every single time, and one M1 Extreme Studio is definitely NOT worth two M1 Max Studios, same as one 12-core M2 Pro Mini is definitely NOT worth two 8-core M2 Minis.
Everyone is drawn to "the best," and that's where Apple fleeces and makes its money. Pretty consistently forever, the best buys from Apple are never the high end configurations. We may feel secure in what our choices were, doubling down on affirming them, but we definitely pay for it.