I would recommend waiting if you can. I am waiting to upgrade my S22 Ultra to the 24 Ultra with, hopefully, a flat screen.

Yes, 8 GB is actually fine for casual users. However, 8 GB at $1600 is just price gouging.

I don’t think you can fool the phone cellular to think that you are domestic. However, you can try using a VPN to see if you can update using cellular.

It’s not even about professionals. There should not be a $1600 laptop that comes with 8 GB, and an upgrade to 16 GB is another $200.