Text layer disappears every time I stop typing. Reappears when I start typing again.

You're being impatient. 

Don't think that Adobe were slow to get it working. 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/indesign-16-0-16-1-crashing-my-brand-new-macbook-air-apple-m1-chip/m-p/11841886#M415060

The problems are two-fold. Your new ARM chip (M1)-based Mac uses a totally different microprocessor than the one that the Adobe applications were designed and compiled for. With these new systems, Apple has provided an Intel instruction set emulator (Rosetta 2) to make it appear to the application that the system indeed has an Intel processor running on an Intel-based Mac. But there have been “issues” with that emulator.

 

Adobe is in the process of providing “M1-native” versions of Adobe Creative Cloud and Document Cloud applications for these new Mac systems, but until those are ready (and we are doing our best to get those updated versions completed, tested, and released ASAP) and/or Apple fixes a number of its Rosetta 2 and MacOS issues, running on a “bleeding edge” system for production purposes is problematic.

 

Sorry!

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

 

Like

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/indesign-and-the-apple-m1-chip/m-p/11709997#M408922

Adobe is actively working to make versions of all current applications that are native to the ARM processor which is part of Apple's M1 and future “computer on a chip” systems. No date has been announced yet for such releases.

 

That having been said, I personally believe that unless you are primarily looking for bragging rights about having “the latest and greatest” new toy from Cupertino, it might be prudent to wait a while until at least the next round of models are unleashed by Apple. Beyond resolving both operating system and application problems (and synchronization of same), the current M1 chip-based computers have two severe limitations that are fairly problematic for serious graphic arts production:

 

Small screens – The MacBook Air has a 13.3" screen. The MacBook Pro has a 13" screen, neither of which are reasonable for the type of work you are planning. Even a 15" or 16" Intel-based MacBook Pro is cutting it close. You would definitely need an external screen for either of these 13.x" systems to be at all usable.

 

Insufficient Memory – These initial models support only 8GB and 16GB versions of the M1 chip and this memory is shared between a number of components on the M1 chip. I think that most InDesign users and especially those users who are simultaneously running multiple applications (such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat in addition to InDesign, not to mention some type of mail client and browsers) would recommend at least 32GB of memory. 

 

Rumors are that more heavy duty configurations of the Mx-based MacBook Pro with larger screens, more memory, and larger SSDs are on the horizon. I believe that waiting a while will be rewarded significantly in terms of hardware that really meets your needs, less “issues” with MacOS, and ARM-native applications.

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/indesign-unusable-with-macbook-m1-chip/m-p/11887182#M417646

It isn't a matter of playing "catchup" in any way. Apple released new, incompatible hardware (not just the CPU, by the way), totally new program development tools, a problematic Intel instruction emulator, and very few prototype systems for application developers to work with prior to releasing all of this. Oh, and by the way it was accompanied by a major new incompatible OS release.

 

Contrary to the religious beliefs of some of the fanboys, no application developer is sitting on their tuchas and holding back on developing ARM-chip native versions of their applications. We have no incentive to do such foolishness.

 

On the other hand, based on the 38 year history of the Macintosh and the continual dramatic, incompatible hardware and software changes made by Apple over that time, it should be apparent that being “the first on the block” to acquire the latest shiny new toy from the Cathedral of St. Steve-the-Infallible and trying to use same for production work is just not prudent.

 

FWIW, today, March 10, 2021, Adobe did release an ARM-native version of Photoshop for MacOS. Other applications such as InDesign will follow when they are ready!