Gordon Prokap

I was unable to even get my Focusrite Clarret 8 PreX even detected on multiple TB4 systems though it's always worked great on TB3. I'm not the only one. Are the Focusrite drivers just shit?

I already have it installed and running on a Virtual Machine . . .

This interface has caught my attention, what does Cakewalk report the RTL to be on a 32 sample buffer at 48 KHz?

Modern laptops are overkill for audio, but many of them may have Latency issues. My 2019 Gigabyte Aero drove me bonkers getting it to work correctly and I'm an IT professional (short version: disable the ACHI battery controller in Device manager before doing audio work). I used this as my only PC until just last week when I was able to get my hands and a 5950x and build a modern system. The laptop was fine, able to mix anything I needed and run guitar amp sims at 4.3 ms latency reliably. You do you, either way you'll be fine.

Which is way overkill for audio needs either way. USB buffers more than FW or TB (at least it used to). The TB interfaces will get a faster RTL on paper, whether it's fast enough for you to notice is a different question