I wonder what's so special about Mac audio that necessitates changes to core ALSA.

I also think it's interesting that beamforming is a thing that exists on such a generic device as a laptop. Is that how the mic tries to pick up only things in front of the laptop? Must be!

Might have something to do with how Apple expects the software to model the temperature of the speakers based on the power it has sent them, and limit volume to keep them from being blown. Other laptops do this in hardware/chipset. https://asahilinux.org/2022/11/november-2022-report/