So, your "Apple hardware is terrible" wants the Thinkpad "keyboard and far better aesthetics", but stil prefers Apple internals especially "the CPU".
In other words, you claim "the hardware is terrible", but your actual case is "I prefer the external design of the Thinkpad".
I guess, I'll give you the keyboard. Which is more than compensated with the far greater touchpad, incredible speed, battery life, and coolness while all of the previous (of the M1).
I vastly prefer the Thinkpad touchpad over the Mac one and do not get what people see in the Mac's touchpad. For me Macs have better cooling, better battery life, better CPU but worse input devices (keyboard and touchpad). Macs have better glossy screens but since I prefer matte screens I prefer the screen of the Thinkpad.
IMHO general design of ThinkPad touchpads with the additional buttons at the top (if it's a thinkpad which has it) is much much better even if you don't use the trackpad.
But if you don't use that buttons apple touchpads tends to be better in my opinion.
In other words, you claim "the hardware is terrible", but your actual case is "I prefer the external design of the Thinkpad".
I guess, I'll give you the keyboard. Which is more than compensated with the far greater touchpad, incredible speed, battery life, and coolness while all of the previous (of the M1).