I've been doing that for six fucking years and not a single thing has changed. The base memory and storage has not changed in that time. During that same amount of time:

- Macs transitioned to Apple Silicon, got rid of dGPU memory

- Baseline Macbook Air models increased in price by $100

- AI became a realistic and usable technology

- Gaming is slightly feasible with GPTK

Of course we shouldn't be starting at 8 gigs of memory. This is highway robbery and the only thing you can say in defense is "buy something else then"