Run CS6 apps from an external bootable drive?

There is also this bit…

If I take the SSD hard drive out of my 2012 and boot from it as an external drive on the new M1 Mac…

By @JLUCC

That is also impossible. There is no way any Apple Silicon (M1/M2) Mac can boot from a hard drive taken out of a 2012 Intel Mac. Apple Silicon Macs can boot only from versions of macOS that support Apple Silicon processors, but a hard drive from an 2012 Mac would have a version of macOS that only has code for Intel processors. Also, M1 Macs require macOS 11 or 12 or later, depending on the model, so they will not boot from any earlier version of macOS or Mac OS X.

The transition from a 2012 Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac is a major one. Across that time span, Apple made changes such as dropping support for 32-bit apps, tightening requirements for privacy and security for apps, and transitioned from Intel to Apple Silicon processors. The scope of those changes is so wide and deep that not many applications you have on a 2012 Intel Mac will run on a new M1/M2 Apple Silicon Mac without requiring some kind of update or upgrade. And again because of the number of changes they had to make, many commercial applications will require a paid upgrade for Apple Silicon Mac compatibility.

As much of a hassle as it’s probably going to be to upgrade software for a Mac that’s 10 years newer and on a completely different processor, it will be worth it just for the major jump in speed and battery life, so you shouldn’t let the complications stop you.