MacBook Pro M1 Pro RAM usage

The MacRumors link is showing high memory usage as well at nearly 3GB....that seems excessive too.

You may want to run EtreCheck and post the report here to have the contributors review it to see if anything stands out.

How long has it been since you rebooted the laptop? Make sure to uncheck "Reopen windows when logging in" from the pop-up when rebooting so that each app will restart and clear out there temp files. Make sure to run EtreCheck before rebooting so the most information about the system performance is included with the report. Running EtreCheck after a reboot loses so much important information about the system performance.

Memory leaks are challenging and time-consuming to track down. The most expedient technique is often a process of elimination. Start by examining what you are doing with Python.