I'm in the market for a Mini. Will try to wait for M4.

I'm trying to future-proof. I don't do gnarly computation, so Pro chip seems unnecessary. But is it possible that something like AI might eventually require Pro chip for full function? Doubtful. The AI stuff will be done using the neural processing unit within the chip, and not so much using the cpu cores. Apple tends to drop entire year classes of chips when determining which machines to leave behind in updates. Given past history, I suspect we'll see all M1 series chips phased out at the same time, with the exception possibly being the Ultra that may get an extra year or two because they appear to be on a longer refresh cycle than the other chips in the lineup.

That said, no one truly knows because we haven't seen Apple drop support for any M* chips yet.

On a side note, I've seen my wife run her portrait photography workflow on a base model 8/256 MacBook Air with nothing more than an external SSD attached, and it handles it incredibly well. Sure it pages like crazy, but it gets the job done without much delay. If you don't feel you need a Pro model, you likely don't.

The way I see it, even if it means abusing the machine, it makes better financial sense to get the lowest configuration Mac you can get away with and pick up a new one when you need it. Trying to future proof often means living without a set of features for several years while you are trying to justify the expense of an $1800 mini configuration when you could have bought the $600 configuration, upgraded twice, and maintained the latest features all while still spending the same amount of money (less if you are pulling from an interest accruing account). Apple's upgrades are simply too pricy to justify buying more computer than you actually need for personal use.