The ram that’s important for LLMs is gpu-accessible memory, meaning either systems with unified ram or VRAM, the latter of which is tied to the caliber of GPU one has.

8Gb was the standard for a long time (before Apple went Silicon), because from what I understood, is that SDRAM needs to contantly power cycle the memory bus otherwise the bits will fade, and so by having more RAM, your battery would last a little less... this was around the time when 3 hours charge was unheard of, so every little bit helped.

Probably doesn't matter these days with all-day batterys, but now the demand-supply curve is lopsided.

My job still issues 16GB laptops as standard. You need a business reason to get more. This has been going on since before the price hikes.

I’m a system administrator and I can do my job with no issues at 16GB. Most days 8GB would likely be enough, since I’m just using and abusing other systems anyway.

Java devs at my last job were still running 16GB in 2020. Admittedly that was a while ago. Still not a decade.

Close some Chrome tabs?

Unified memory is soldered to the motherboard and needs to be ordered with the new laptop, for prices that are well above what the equivalent amount of SODIMM would cost.

Fine if work's paying, but for personal devices (that might have been purchased before local models got good), people have what they have.