Fair enough. I may have projected a number of other comments onto yours a bit. Sorry about that. If the delta is similar it would certainly be crazy fast.
As far as the packaging, I agree with your general assertion. However, they ship about 20 million computers and about 240 million iOS devices per year, all of which require custom SOC packages. Needless to say, they are a very large customer with their packaging suppliers. I could be wrong, but I think the leverage they get will keep the costs in line even for a smaller slice of their premium priced products.
Apple has always billed their big selling point in terms of performance per watt. That narrative might change.
I suspect even if the 16" Pro has more modest performance gains than the Air, it will still have massively better battery life. The iMac and Apple's bigger devices have a lot of thermal and power headroom to make up for the shortcomings of Intels CPUs.
As far as the packaging, I agree with your general assertion. However, they ship about 20 million computers and about 240 million iOS devices per year, all of which require custom SOC packages. Needless to say, they are a very large customer with their packaging suppliers. I could be wrong, but I think the leverage they get will keep the costs in line even for a smaller slice of their premium priced products.