You know, all it takes to recover a hosed system on x86 is a flash drive. Because the bootloader on those machines doesn’t have to be a specially made macOS partition with a slimmed down macOS on it (hah! Those people are calling Grub2 bloated!) which must live on the internal storage.
Moreover, on x86, even if the internal storage is hosed completely, I can boot the machine off USB/Thunderbolt and have it live for years more. Try that with dead SSD in your new macbook. Talk anout e-waste problem and how „heroically” Apple is fighting it, too.
I muck with the OS and above all the time, and I somehow can’t remember I ever needed to restore my bios. No. Never. Really.
But M1 macs need the internal storage to work and be intact to boot even from external media. If the internal ssd on my intel mac or dell xps tablet (the soldered one, yep) dies, I boot from usb3.1 and keep on keeping on. The M1 Mac is a brick after that, except the new mac studio where the ssds are somewhat replaceable.
Moreover, on x86, even if the internal storage is hosed completely, I can boot the machine off USB/Thunderbolt and have it live for years more. Try that with dead SSD in your new macbook. Talk anout e-waste problem and how „heroically” Apple is fighting it, too.