Do you have any ideas why the difference in RAM usage is so stark and how I could further investigate?

Assuming this is a minimal install of Arch, that’s kinda the point. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised if Asahi isn’t fully optimized yet.

Thank you! Will try to look into it 🙂.

there is a lot of technical stuff thats cool about windows

Would you be so kind to tell more about this? Thank you in advance!

Can’t we focus on why/how Linux rocks instead?

I’m not at all interested to be regarded as a Linux user just because “Windows is bad”. It reminds me of all the ex-<insert religion/ideology>-crowd that somehow continues to identify themselves by their past affiliations. I don’t think that’s a healthy place to be in.