It's all gravy, I think she'd end up about equally happy with any of them, really, I don't think too hard about it. I'm sort of indifferent to sub-$1000 laptop purchases for the reasons you mentioned, they're all designed to sort of shit the bed in 3 years, I just offer my eyes and some brief thoughts. She went with the one he found.
In the past I'd expend more energy making the case
@avenue94 made towards prioritizing a stronger processor with less RAM, it's more obviously logical, but I don't know what anyone's workload is, and I also know that some might like to stretch out a laptop as long as 5 years or even more. Since the cooling systems are so poor, and usually the CPU demands minor, without much advantage above the i3's for most as I outlined, I tend to favor those lesser processors simply because they generate less heat, and so the laptop lives longer, and is more likely to work optimally throughout that lifespan. Meanwhile, while those who builds PCs aren't at all uncomfortable adding/upgrading RAM or SSD storage, including flashing a new installation of Windows if necessary for an SSD replacement, which can be a frugal avenue for upgrades, most aren't, and don't want the hassle, so if they are the kind to really stretch out a laptop's lifespan, the overabundance of RAM and especially the extra storage will probably be a welcome luxury down the road. Typically those demand a large premium up front, and that was the most appealing aspect of his find. I don't agree that most people don't use up most of their storage. In my experience, people cram their drives. Although perhaps less so in the smartphone age. The burden has been shifted.
When it comes to this 12th gen i3 vs. the Ryzen 7000 series there is not too great a difference in the heat strain or power consumption. Bear in mind that Ryzen 7000 mobile processors vary widely in sophistication. Some are still Zen 2 based (i.e. same as in the Ryzen 5 3600). For example, the Zen 2 R5-7520U is an inferior processor, and yet only uses about 11 fewer watts under Cinebench load (37W vs. 48W). Meanwhile, the Zen 3 based 7530U is in some laptops that were around the same price, and is a significantly superior processor in terms of performance, but also consumes more power (60W vs. 48W).
Andy may have done a bit better, but I think he did alright.
*Edit* Moved all of the posts in Andy's discussion to the laptop thread.