The whole premise is flawed. Intel and AMD can release a CPU whenever they want. Even if the M2 (or whatever) is ready now, in what machine does Apple put it? And more importantly, when does that machine get released to consumers? Apple has never have had a consistent release cycle with their machines, with redesigns clearly slowing down the release cycle.

They told us they were on a two-year transition, and we have until WWDC next year at the earliest to finish that transition. And looking at what happened during the first year, it's pretty clear they meant that each machine would be updated once during the transition.

The Macbook Air, Mac Mini and 13-inch Macbook Pro were obviously the machines deemed to skip a redesign, and were released first. The 24-inch iMac was redesigned, and I suspect every other computer will get a redesign to go with their new chip.

I suspect this Fall, after the new iPhones unveil a new set of cores, we will see those cores used to build a new chip that goes in the machines still due for an update: the big iMac and the big Macbook Pro. The M1 machines will not be updated, and we will only see a Mac Pro at WWDC 2022. Then who knows?