Nothing has felt huge anymore. iOS is so capable on all modern phone it makes them all feel the same unless you look at the small nuances.

My GF uses a m2 air and she makes reels for instagram professionally. You may run into some slow downs on the air, but realistically most things that slow it down would slow down a pro as well. It really doesn’t seem like you need a gpu so I’d put most of your money into storage to help the computer last longer.

Get the 9. The double tap gesture is likely to be the first of many to come over the next few years. 9 will probably get future gesture updates and 8 will not. Don’t underestimate the brighter screen too