The general workload performance (browsing, text editing) is comparable for neo and m* MacBooks afaict.

Ghastly was macOS on an Intel MacBook Air.

Why would we compare it to an 8-year-old design? For browsing, the current MBP smokes the MBN, by margins of roughly one-third. It is a significant and noticeable regression. For sustained workloads like software development or even running the MacOS updates, it is a huge and glaring regression. But it's still good kit.