32GB Unified RAM max. Is that really the machine I want for running local LLMs?

This M6 is the base Pro model. You probably want the M5 pro/max for your LLMs.

It's called Pro, but it's hardly Pro, more like a MacBook with a good fan.

Not really - it seems that M7 will come out in Q1 27 and be targeted at that use-case more specifically.

Base M7 probably will still have pretty low memory bandwidth for serious AI workflows. M7 max/ultra might be pretty interesting though.

Nope.