My wife and I watch with both of us having air pods in. Hard to enjoy Ted Lasso with kids in the house. Roy Kent is a bit much for the little ones. dual airpods are great with the apple tv.

Of course an M2/16GB is the right answer here. But, if you cannot spring for a bit more, I would do the M1/16GB. Be aware that you not only lose some processing power but you get the old form factor which is a bit dated.

Until they make a black keyboard without the numeric keypad, you are stuck with white if you want to match. I know from experience that it looks silly to not match.

It is great.

The store currently shows $200 for ram and SSD upgrades. $180 if you go through the education store. I would do 2-3 but that is just me. I really like the form factor of the 13” and find I value its portability more than screen size. YMMV

Should be fine. I bought my son the M1 for college but I did get him 16GB of ram. I think the upgrade is worth it.