I have an AMD Ryzen 5900X and it is nearly the same in single core and much faster multi-core (12 core). So I don't think it's accurate to say that x86 needs 4x the silicon just it match the M1.
So why don't you write up an article and provide some benchmarks? You'll win lots of internet points, at least on Hacker News, as a lot of people seem pretty upset that Apple's new silicon is killing it.