It’s definitely a little odd to have M3 Ultra > M4 Max, but I feel like anyone complaining about this must have never bought any other manufacturers’ wares in their lives. Obtuse complication is kind of the norm in this industry.
Oh, but things were far worse back then, in terms of knowing what you were getting. For instance, let's say you bought a 13" MacBook Pro in 2016. Do you have a dual core or quad core processor? Depends on whether you have a touchbar!
(For reasons best known to themselves, Apple made two completely different 13" MBPs that year, both new, with the loathed butterfly keyboard, weighing a different amount, with different processors, and the same name.)
Literally not even the same thing you're comparing. There were more processor and graphics options. Want an i5, i7, or i9 and what about a RX 580, 5300, 5500, 5700, or 5700XT?
Remember when it was just a MacBook, or air, or pro and it had a year.