Application Memory continued

I would appreciate your thinking about this and weighing in.

Since 2012 I had a 27in Intel chip IMac with 8 GB of memory. It was great until it began to be slow and I could not update it to the latest Apple OS.  During that time I wrote several books, did extensive on-line research, and stored everything on the computer including PDF books, a lot of images (no videos or movies). Frequently I had several apps open at the same time as I referred to them as I worked; Microsoft Word for Mac, Safari, Pages, Mail, and Reunion (a genealogy database app for Mac.) I Never had a problem.

This spring 2022 I bought a 24in M1 chip IMac with the same amount of memory  8GB. It seemed fine until I received a warning that my application memory was about to run out. I had Never seen that warning before on my previous iMac. 

I read information on this forum about this subject, and I did the things recommended. 

1. Removed unused apps, and large files, including those hidden attachments in Mail.

2. Stored everything in the cloud.

3. Bought CleanMyMac and ran that program to remove even more stuff.

4. Shut down the iMac each evening.

Even after doing this, I get warnings about not enough application memory.  A number of times I had to quit an app. to go on. And several times one or more of the apps would not respond. The 

most frequent Hang is Mail. After I quit Mail, (and other apps) I can not open Mail again unless I restart.  

So far I am not getting any help from Apple Support after 3 calls. One rep had me install a clean version of Ventura 13.0.1. One rep just said I made a mistake by buying the IMac with only 8 GB of memory. Not very nice. The Apple Mail app may be suspect since it is always the app that hangs. I intend to keep trying to get Apple to help, but I am not feeling very confident.  Is the M1 chip not as good as Intel? Is there a bug in Mail that so far Apple can not find? I have no problems with Mail on iPhone or iPad.

The apps listed above are all the same version that was on my previous Mac except Pages which came with the new machine. Pages does not seem to be a problem, since I have not used it much recently.

Activity Monitor mostly shows I am using about 7 of the 8 GB of memory.  If the apps  below are open here is the usage: AddressBookSourceSync 13 GB, WindowServer 852 MB, Word 201MB, Mail 58 MB, Safari 53 GB, Reunion 116 MB, Activity Monitor 49 MB. Everything else is under 38 and mostly under 25.   Cached Files 930 MB. The memory pressure graph is yellow/orange.

I can not figure this out. If the only suggestion from Apple about memory is to buy a computer with more than 8 GB - Then I suggest they do not offer an IMac with less than 16 GB. Of course once you commit, you can not add more memory.

Thank you all for your advice and review.