Comment by EagnaIonat

> macOS 15 uses ~5GB on startup without any app open. I'd be swapping all the time on 8GB of RAM.

Well for starters MacOS version is currently 26.3 (Tahoe).

Apple ecosystem, if you are not using RAM then it is wasted RAM. So it always optimise to use as much as possible.

The main point however is you are not the target audience. Apple realised that the majority of users don't do anything beyond the power of what the phone supplies. That who this is intended for.