Something is seriously wrong with your MacBook Air M2. I’ve got one and can easily run Unity (a game development tool), Brave Browser with a bunch of tabs, Spotify, Discord, Visual Studio and a few other odds and ends. And this is only the 8GB model.
I’d check Activity Monitor as others suggested and also check the Console app to see if it’s logging any errors from any software. Hopefully it’s as simple as finding what’s borking your system and addressing that issue. Maybe backup your data and doing a reinstall.
If it’s still under warranty also take it to the Apple Store and have them check it out.
I've gone the other way compared to "future proofing" and started buying the minimum I think can get the job done and do it well. Best Buy had a deal on M2 MacBook Airs and I bought one of them with the base 8GB of RAM but upgraded the SSD.
I do some development work and was learning MAUI at work and my old 2012 MacBook Pro couldn't upgrade to MacOS 11 required to run the development tools for that.
I figured if I hit something I couldn't do with the MacBook Air within 30 days, I could take it back to Best Buy and upgrade. If I need to upgrade after the 30 days, I figured I can find a buyer and step up to a 14" Pro.
So far, this little M2 Air has taken everything I've thrown at it. I'm starting to tinker with building apps/games in Unity and am wanting to get into Mixed Reality on the Quest 3. I may need to upgrade sometime next year, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.