It's nice to have a desktop around, even outside of productivity. I have an ancient 2550k set up as a media centre to run a TV that I also use for playing with bots, crypto and anything else long-running. It's also nice as a backup in case a laptop dies. This thing is about 7 years old now though and would still hit your requirements without trying.

For productivity though, nothing really beats a laptop. The ability to hide in a dark corner with a set of headphones for a couple hours to work in silence is worth all the compromises.

All that said, we can't help much without knowing your budget. I've recommended both the M1 MBAs and cheap Chromebooks to different people before and they both might work for you. From your requirements, anything made in the last 10 years might work so I'd aim for something that won't break when dropped rather than benchmark results.