Booting an M1 MacBook to an External SSD?

I'm very reluctantly updating my M1 Max MacBook Pro to Sonoma from Monterey. As a videographer and photographer, I need to be running the latest versions of the Adobe CC apps. The list of apps that no longer support my old OS is growing, so I can't drag my feet much longer. In the past when I've done updated my macOS, I've created an external boot drive to troubleshoot the new OS. I would like to do this with Sonoma but understand it's problematic with the Silicon Macs. I've read a few threads about failures with the Samsung S7 drives. So I'm considering something like the OWC Envoy Pro FX Thunderbolt SSD. Does anyone have any experience with this drive or another recommendation as an M1 boot drive? Worst case is that I might end up with another external SSD for media files. Thanks