Thank you again, guys! At this point I'm thinking about buying a 16/512 one pretty much at any time, maybe even before Black Friday.
The reason is that my situation is a bit complicated. I want a starlight - do NOT want a midnight blue as it doesn't attract me aesthetically and I'm not keen on the fingerprint magnet aspect, plus it's not a color that will age well with scuffing etc.
Meanwhile the 16/512 that I've seen on sale at a discount is usually a midnight blue
... so it may be that I won't be able to get a starlight below the full price.
The other complication is that I have about $700 in Apple credits from trade-ins that I could use, which suggests that I should just BTO the thing from Apple which I can do at any time. Now, I'm not desperate to use the $700 credit if there's a great deal out there, because I intend to buy the updated iPP 11" next year to replace my faulty Air 3, so I can use the credits then.
So my plan right now is to leisurely look around to see if there are any amazing *starlight 16/512* deals out there, but I don't have high hopes. I considered buying refurbs from Apple, but I've had a bad experience with that years and years ago, and I'm spooked to this day, so I kinda want to buy new. I won't be looking around too long, because I don't think the odds are particularly good for my "want", so I'll probably buy within the next couple of weeks.
Anyhow that's update on my plans and hope to hold a 15" in my hands soon!