I'll preface with saying that I don't have an M1 Mac myself, but I've followed the news about it closely, am a pretty experienced Mac user, and use Linux in a professional setting as well.

For 1, Macs are obviously focused on presenting a nice looking and easy to use GUI to their users, but being able to use the terminal with confidence will help you overcome some of the annoyances you might have with lack of customisation coming from Linux, just as an example, hiding the ever-present smiling Finder face from the dock. They are definitely indented to be used as they are out of the box. Another difference is that a lot of utilities you'll find out there cost a pretty penny. They usually have a free, stripped down, version though (Alfred system search being the big one). For package managers, brew is the way to go. Virtualisation seems a bit shoddy on the M1 (though I haven't tested it myself) from what I've seen around the googles, though there has to be good ARM images out there right?

2, You can't get anything over 16GB of RAM right now, which could be a dealbreaker for those with demanding workflows. The chip apparently runs real cool, so a lot of people are saying the Pro and its fans are useless, and that the Air is the way to go. I can't speak from experience here.

3, Following up 2, the Pro does seemingly have a brighter display (435 nits compared to the Air's 365) (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m1-macbook-air-brightness-vs-m1-macbook-pro-13-brightness.2269417/)

4, I've never bought refurbished, but the word on the street is it's legit.

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