What is opinion on these m1 machines longevity. Some tech people are comparing it to first gen iPad.Like they will be sunset after a couple of years vs 2nd gen which are supported much longer. but I am not so sure most of the issues with these first gen m1 machines are software so in theory they should be supported for long time.
If you look back at the Intel transition, if I remember correctly they released the MacBook Pro with a Core Duo in January of 2006 and Core 2 Duo in October. The latter being 64-bit. Sure, the latter ones were better, but the former ones worked fine. OS support seems to go with architecture generations. The early 2006 laptops supported Snow Leopard which had its last release in 2011. The next laptops supported Lion which had its last release in 2012 (but with hacks could get updated until 2018).
I think the major question is if you want to wait to see what the "pro" machines look like or if Apple has tweaks in 6 months to the current line up. The Mac Pro has some big questions about what may need to change if they're looking for parity with the current Mac Pro (improved multi-monitor support, more RAM options, upgradable GPUs). Those changes may show up in the high end Macbook Pros (likely not upgradable GPUs).
* iPad 1, which was basically a iPhone 3GS with a bigger screen, and from day 1 didn't have enough RAM to drive the big screen
* First Intel macs, which were 32-bit, before Apple quickly transitioned everything to 64-bit
* First Apple Watch ("series 0") which was just underpowered in general
The M1 Macs really don't appear to have any obvious flaws like these.