Strictly in my opinion, the M1 mba is perhaps a tie or even slightly edges out the x2_0 series. Solidly built (would I use it as a melee weapon? no, that's what actual melee weapons -- like model m keyboards -- are for), fast, quiet, great screen, insane battery life, usable unix under the hood. I'll grant that the older IBM keyboards were top notch, but the M1's is good enough and having a modern screen to read code on is worth the trade (at least for me, I spend way more time reading and thinking when writing code than physically banging away on the keyboard). I feel kind of weird gushing about hardware to be honest, but it's just that good a machine and I guess that's in keeping with the author's love of the x220? :)

If I didn't have an m1 air though, an x200-series thinkpad running linux of some form probably would be my go-to! I still eye minifree.org from time to time when the temptation for a dedicated portable linux machine has me in its grip.