@Stu I’m sorry you never got an answer. I don’t know if you still care, but I’ll answer regardless, hoping someone gets some useful info.
I run Adobe Illustrator every day on a laptop.
Get something with a bomb trackpad if you are not going to use a mouse, and get the biggest, highest resolution screen you can, even if you plan on driving an external monitor.
I use a 2019 Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch. Best trackpad in the business, and 3072×1920 can get the job done even without an external monitor. That said, driving an external 5K or 4K monitor is certainly plush.