Good response. I don’t understand why so many users rely on idle RAM as a benchmark since it is a sliding scale depending on how much RAM is installed. Somehow, some users think a 16GB RAM system using 1GB of RAM is heavy when RAM is faster than an HDD or SSD. Yes, idle RAM on an 1GB/2GB RAM system is important to know but it is still casually mentioned on 8/16/32 GB systems as a real metric. Again, great response/explanation.
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We all learn about RAM management together, for its a collaborated effort. 
I'm old enough to remember the days when computers only had megabytes of RAM, circa 1990's obviously. Back in those days, computer RAM management was absolutely atrocious, and once the RAM was used up, the systems always crashed, constantly.
Once Windows, Mac, & Linux started doing RAM management, the computer crashes started to get reduced a whole heck of a lot. Of course, having said that, it also didn't hurt that computers were getting literal gigabytes of RAM then.
The reality is, APPS, especially development software and games, are requiring more RAM then ever before. But at the same time, RAM also costs far less then it ever has before. So, there really is not any good reason not to get 16GB to 32GB of RAM now these days.
Now, currently, most people don't need 64GB of RAM however. 64GB is for very specific use cases, primarily virtual machines usage, HARDCORE 12K video editing, or possibly a big home server machine. But gone are the days when 8GB is relevant.
Well, I should probably clarify what I mean by the last sentence. If all you buy is a cheap netbook with 8GB of RAM, because all your using it for, is to surf the web, watch a few video's, chat with friends, social networking, 8GB of RAM is more then enough.
I am speaking more about development usage or gaming usage, in cases like that, 16GB is the new standard, and thats completely fine. I say again, RAM has never been cheaper then it is today. I remember when it used to cost 400 dollars just to have 500MB of RAM.
And joke was on us, even if we managed to get 500MB of RAM in one of those mid 90's computers, dang things were still crashing lol. I strongly feel that the 2000's, is when computer's were starting to actually become truly competent and truly useful.
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Fantastic analysis. Spot on regarding intersecting lines with modern operating systems needing more RAM and their prices dropping. A great way to future-proof a system is getting more RAM, especially in the days of soldered on RAM like with Apple. A low end processor might work better too with more RAM. I have a low end Athlon 3000g APU on two systems using 16GBs and 32GBs of RAM and these PCs work great today on Windows and Zorin.
I also use an M1 MacBook Air with only 8Gbs of RAM and it is remarkable what they do with so little RAM. I have yet to see any or significant swap space used even with heavier loads. I don’t do video editing but have done virtual machines using Debian and it has done well despite being taxed so hard. I wish I knew of what sorcery Apple does to make their integrations work so well.
Optimization I am sure plays a pivotal part by matching parts and software to work more efficiently which Linux nor Windows can’t do at the same breadth.
Again, great explanation.
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