I would look into selling the Mac locally or on r/hardwareswap or r/appleswap if you feel like you aren’t using it and get more use out of the iPad. Sounds like you’re doing just fine with the iPad alone and don’t really have much need for a full fledged computer.

I ended up going with the M1 Air base model. A lot of people were recommending the M2 Pro with 16/512 for $1599 refurb. I think Best Buy had that same model new, for the same price. If I were you, I would compare the M2 pro and M2 Air and decide between the two of those.