How to optimize Apple Music streaming on MacBook Air with limited storage

I have an M2 Air on latest Sonoma, with almost nothing else installed. Since Apple have decided that their base model with 256GB of storage is sufficient for those with regular sized pockets, I don't have enough space to store my music library locally - so I stream my library in the cloud, via Apple Music. Recently, I'm finding that tracks just skip to the next halfway through, or buffer very slowly and completely stop.

I had to disable lossless streaming already, since that would cause glitches ~10 seconds into tracks - a widely reported error across the forums.

Frankly, I cannot believe I am using a thousand dollar laptop with a high-speed broadband internet connection and struggling to stream packets of 256kbps AAC audio in the year 2024.

Things I've tried:

• Clearing Music cache
• Deleting Music library and re-synchronizing Cloud Library
• Restarting
• Reinstalling OS

[Re-Titled By Moderator]