I ended up buying the 4th generation Air. As @thumper1 mentioned, the 8th generation non-air was really fine as well.
I opted for the Air for a couple reasons. The screen did seem a little bigger - less black edge. It felt visually like an upgrade over the 8th. I do think the resolution is a little crisper. The Air is compatible with the Magic Keyboard should that be something I chose to add on down the road.
The Air also has touch for the Home Screen instead of the button which is more like the newer iPhones.
The Pro would have been overkill for me. I landed in the middle with the Air.
Still setting it up - should have chose to sync /download all my phone apps but I did not snooze that option.
The 8th would have been perfectly fine. But I do have bad eyes and visually the slightly larger screen was noticeable but not too big like some of the pros!
I will say the 8th is really a bargain. Depending how much memory you want you can spend as little as $319 at Costco .