We have to keep in mind that there are several things that contribute to the speed of the computer. The processor, the GPU, the size and amount of RAM, the wifi hardware, etc. One of things that many people don’t think of is the hard drive. We’re not that many years distant from a time when most computers came with a spinning platter hard drive. Those were mechanical components that looked and functioned somewhat like a record player with a read/write arm and a spinning disk. When SSD hard drives became available and affordable, one of the easiest ways to make an existing computer noticeably faster was by upgrading to an SSD. How quickly your Mac is able to access and create data locally is definitely one component of how fast your computer feels.
— Read on yourappleupdate.substack.com/p/the-new-macbook-airs-ssd-controversy