Exactly. The 2016-2018 models were the low point, but Apple has listened and has improved since then.

The 2019 16” was a step in the right direction. More ports, better cooling, better keyboard.

The M1 Pro/Max line up brought back HDMI, MagSafe, SD card slots, and are seriously fast, quiet, & cool. The M2 and M3 releases have been iterative performance improvements and haven’t made any stupid decisions.

Apple’s also invested development effort into useful tooling for developers like their virtualisation framework - this has made Docker on Mac vastly more pleasant for instance.