Well the MBA has some standout features:

• build quality, it really is well made
• trackpad (all apple laptops)
• fanless, this is underrated for some people
• runs macOS
• battery life
• powerful enough for nearly anything south of long 4k renders or LLMs etc.

Honestly, oranges to oranges, I consider the Air as competing with more expensive business class laptops with more ports and bigger numbers, but worse end user experience.