Well, I guess this is the silver lining to the price increases. I'd been thinking about an M5 128GB for local inference (eg DS4), probably off the table now given that it jumped $2k overnight. But I was on the fence about it for a long time given that even the M5 is not that good compared to even a 4090. It would have been good, but not "omg" good.
If they are pulling out all the stops to make the M7 more competitive.. guess I can wait for that?
I imagine they weren't planning for their plans to be leaked so publicly, as yes it will now mean some buyers will delay their purchases.