I was also going to suggest that Chris do a cloud transfer from iCloud to Google photos and then download from there. Apple will manage that as well according to this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/118257

Chris, I also suggest a few other things: Invest in a fast SSD to transfer photos from your Mac vs. SD card - your M1 MBP is not the issue - it’s probably the transfer rates of the memory card. The other thing is to get in the habit of regularly copying your files to another location. Say, right after a trip or event when there are fewer files to manage.

Good luck