For batch jobs there isn't much competition. 9995wx has 3 to 4x throughput of M5 max.

And then, if your laptop is busy, your machine is occupied - I hate that feeling. I never run heavy software on my laptop. My machine is in the cellar, I connect over ssh. My desktop and my laptop are different machines. I don't want to have to keep my laptop open and running. And I don't want to drag an expensive piece of hardware everywhere.

And then you need to use macOS. I'm not a macOS person.