M1 has been out for a short time, and Apple Stores are not accepting walk-in customers. People aren't seeing their friends much due to the pandemic, so it's unlikely that those who bought the new machines are broadly showing them off.
Lots of forum praise about M1 seems like it's coming from people who have no hands-on experience with the new devices. I have no reason to believe that Apple pays people to stir up hype on the web, but I definitely sense that the vast majority of people hyping M1 haven't purchased an M1 device. My sense is that they just read some blogs, ogle some benchmarks, and regurgitate what they see.
That's not exactly a diversity of opinion. I can tell you I've been voted down a couple of times just for suggesting that there's too much hype and not enough information.
So I think there is some reliable evidence in it's favour. But I don't think you should be downvoted for disagreeing with that. Since it definitely up for debate! Someone seems to have downvoted your comment here, and I think that is the wrong action to take on what is clearly a thoughtfull response on your part.
You even find the usual contrarians who moan that it’s Apple, so anyone saying anything positive have to be shills and the CPU has to be terrible (plenty of those in this thread).
Since when do he have to buy something to have an opinion? Are you saying that the people who complain about the M1 (or Macs in general) without having bought one should just shut up?
It's pretty difficult to have an informed opinion about a product that you've never seen/used/tested/tried.
Due to the requirements for a shopping appointment at an Apple Store (hard to come by, if you check online), and due to social distancing, it's fairly unlikely that a person who hasn't bought/received an M1 machine can have an informed opinion about it -- especially so soon after the release.
That's why I take the hype regurgitation with a grain of salt. Has nothing to do with buying the right to have an opinion.
