I’ll just add my 2 cents as someone who was in basically the exact same position very recently.

I got the new MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM (space grey, it’s nice) and would say the CPU is about the same as what I moved from and overall performance probably slightly snappier with new gen SSD etc. What I gained was really what I lost, and that was a lot of weight when traveling. It’s really easy to underestimate how much of a difference that makes, especially when the MBA uses the 30W adapter so you save a fair bit there too - I would say I shaved 0.75KG off the overall package at least, possibly more.

I have one of the new MBP with a Touch Bar for work and I can’t really articulate enough how much I hate that thing. No tactile feedback, it’s always triggering weird stuff, you can’t develop a muscle memory etc. IMO it’s a move in the wrong direction and I hope they get rid of it. The one saving grace is Touch ID, but I get that now on the MBA and don’t have to suffer all the rest of it. The rest of the MBP is fine, but honestly I find much less difference between the two overall than I was expecting (I push heavy work to a cloud machine so I don’t normally care too much about CPU, but even then I haven’t really needed to thus far).

Given where we are it’s worth talking about the keyboards. Aside from the the Touch Bar the MBA has the 3rd gen keyboard with the silicone membrane and the butterfly switches while the work MBP has the 2nd gen ones. I personally do find the 3rd gen a pretty big improvement in feel and it’s enough to get to “fine” - The 2nd gen KB in the MBP is “ok” and I personally haven’t had reliability issues with it, but that’s probably because I use an external mechanical keyboard 90% of the time at work

All of that said - My hand was forced by a family member needing a replacement and so the great hand-me-down cycle kicked in. If I could have waited I would have to see if I could get a MBP with Touch ID but not the Touch Bar. If you need to go now though and aren’t hugely CPU bound then I would say the MBA makes a great laptop.

Now if I could only find a great compact portable keyboard I might try going iPad only . . .