Hi. It's hard to future-proof within the budget you mention. Right now, the model you mention would be great (but already above your budget). Thing is, you may want to check what you mean by "a number of years". And, how you feel about performance.
Right now, the recommended RAM for Illustrator is 16GB. As time moves on, these apps seem to always want better GPU and RAM, so buying at the minimum now will work, but it will eventually time out. Nobody knows how long that is.
That being said - I was comfortable with performance hits, so my previous computer served me well for 10 years (with upgrades). In 2020, I bought a new iMac, with an INTEL processor, not the M1 or M2 (granted, the M1 was pretty new, then). Personally, for the money, I am just gambling with how long it'll be before Adobe decides to drop support for the older chips. The biggest benefit of the Pro vs the Air is the ability to upgrade the RAM. That might help you for future-proofing - but it'll cost you more now.
Hope this helps, a little...
... View more