"With that, I see this as Apple locking us into that ecosystem rather than a choice we’re making on our side, so I’d rather lean into this and explore it further than doing nothing. If it comes out positive then we’ll be ready to make the switch before Apple forces us into it, and if not we’ll deploy something thinkpad-esque and keep our production instances x86."

As a long time Apple user (personally and staff wise), please don't tie your business decisions with company that treats professional users badly, every time they can. Your median developer benefits from Linux knowledge in general, you can deploy stable distribution without fear of compatibility problems after minor software update.

Apple marketing and lure is great, I have fallen for their game for 20 years. But I cannot be comfortable with ideas, business and management practices that this generation of Apple deploys.