My experience is similar to yours, and I went to a Macbook Pro during the M1 launch and am pretty happy with the decision, though I would prefer Linux. I take myself to be a tech enthusiast, but I did not have the patience to wade through hundreds of opaque product pages to find what it was they were really selling.

For a time Microsoft had a relatively clean Surface lineup, but a quick check reveals that it's significantly more difficult to shop than it was.