Been thinking about this:
- openjdk is being ported to the new hardware but it's not there yet. I'm not sure if it works with the emulator; or how well.
- if you use anything by Jetbrains, like I do, you'll likely have to wait for them to use that and package up a new release. It's a resource hog as it is and emulation is not going to improve things probably; assuming that works at all.
- things like android studio that rely on virtualization for running simulated phones will likely need upgrades too; but since the emulated hardware is arm that should be doable.
- things like docker which most server side developers like me won't work until Docker releases an arm version. Then the next problem is going to be that the vast majority of docker images out there are x86.
- If you are a web developer and want to test on something else than safari, you'll have to wait or accept worse performance of chrome, firefox, edge, etc. in emulated mode.
- pro hardware with >64GB; 16 GB is a non starter for me. I upgraded to that in 2014. I'd frankly want that dedicated to GPU memory in a modern setup. If you are a pro video or graphics user; I imagine those are not strange requirements. If your workflow involves third party tools and plugins that are x86; I'd wait a couple of years before even considering. Long term, this could be great; short term it's going to be rough depending on what you use.
- Also nice would be for things like opencl (Darktable) and games to work. I have a few steam games and X-plane. I expect that Steam Mac is going to be once more decimated. With the last release 32 bit games stopped working. Essentially all of the remaining games are x86 only. I look forward to seeing some benchmarks of how these are running under rosetta 2; but I don't get my hopes up. I'm guessing, Apple is looking to unify the IOS and Mac gaming ecosystem instead and is actively working to kill off the PC gaming ecosystem on mac. This will be an app store only kind of deal. Likewise, if they finally make moves in VR, it will be ARM and app store only.
So in short, for me it doesn't make sense to upgrade until most of that stuff is covered. None of it is impossible but it's going to take some time. I would be in the market for a 16" x86 mac pro but of course with this transition, long term support for that is very much going to be an afterthought. I might have to finally pull the trigger on a move to Linux.