Windows does caching, buffers and compression, but doesn’t saturate RAM the same as a Unix/Linux or MacOS based system.

MacOS doesn’t use RAM as windows does, the more you have, the more that’ll be used. In MacOS unused RAM is wasted ram, you’ll be using more with 16GB as a buffer and with caching, an 8GB M1 Air is a perfect spec, still can do video and photo editing with it too.