The only time I have heard the fans on my pro was when running games on ultra. If you hear the fans chances are if you had the air instead it would be throttling. Up to you if that is tolerable. I can’t stand throttling so I got the macbook pro with two fans.

IIRC they have a fan it just moved air internally and is for all intents and purpose completely silent from the end user's perspective.

I have owned probably 7 laptops over the past 20 years and every single one with a fan turned into a rattling jet engine mess. Do modern laptops not do this anymore? It was at least half the reason I got the Macbook Air

AIUI, because the macbook air's fan is contained inside the machine that has no external ventilation ports that means the fan is mostly moving clean air with no particulate in it that will eventually build up on the fan whihc make it perform poorly.

I imaagine that the lubricant in the fan will still age, but that is also going to be less of an issue because of less dust contamination.

Where are you getting the idea that the Mx Airs have a fan? They don't.

Macs fans are good, by the time my 2012 kicked the bucket a few months ago the fan still sounded the exact same as it always did. Different story with every other electronic fan I’ve owned of course but I guess thankfully apple doesn’t buy the cheapest fan possible.

I have an M1 Pro that apparently has a fan - I've never seen or heard any evidence that it does actually exist