So if someone’s a casual mac user who uses their mac for browsing, music, office productivity, streaming… at least, 30 chrome browser tabs and streaming music/ mp3 player and another productivity app all simultaneously…
Is upgrading RAM and storage from the base model, overkill for such a “casual mac user”?
Storage won’t be a problem to expand via external but RAM may be. In your case, if the answers to both the above questions (strictly same usage and no resell), 8GB will be enough for you. You didn’t mention anything beyond “base”. Guessing you’re talking about an M3 8GB which costs $1500. You can get an M2 16GB refurb from the Apple store for $1600.