It's looking like I'll be getting RAM and storage for my new computer (still haven't chosen a motherboard, and the CPU is too expensive right now), so here's the question: 16GB or 32GB?

Also, is nvme worth it over SATA?

(CPU: AMD Rizen 3400g. Will use it for web browsing, compiling software, virtual machines, and of course gaming.)

Personal experience: I was starting to get a few blocks with 16GB between a browser with several tabs, Netbeans, VS Code and a virtual machine so I expanded to 32.

Depends on which and how many programs you like running (simultaneously). Yes and (often) no. Best to look up an in-depth article about it.
The price difference isn't big, so if you have an m.2 slot, why not use it? (I have a SATA and an NVME one... +2x 5400rpm and 1x 7200rpm)

The question should be 2x8 or 2x16, go dual channel whenever possible

If you have the money, just go with 32BG in dial channel and never look back, otherwise 16GB is good enough for small to medium use.

EDIT: Since you're a mostly very light gamer and CLI user, I'd say 16GB is enough (you can still have several VMs with 16GB).

NVME is definitely worth it just for the space you save and having the host OS on it.

32GB ONLY GET 32GB and up, Never get 16 you'll kick yourself and always get 2 stick of 16 and put them in like

***EMPTY SLOT***
***RAM MODULE***
***EMPTY SLOT***
***RAM MODULE***

or the other way around NEVER stick them next to each other!

NVME is ABSOLUTELY worth it over regular SATA

SATA III fastest rates = 600MB/s
NVME fastest ever rates = Sequential read/write speeds up to 3,500/3,300 MB/s

Also add to the fact you don't get that annoying ""Byuuuck grererek Byuuuck grererek" sound of the hard drive needles

So good!!

For VMs I bought 32 GB in 2014 for Haswell, if you do what you wrote, I expect, that you will use 32 GB well (especially VMs + gaming new games simultaneously.

2x16 GB = dual channel, dual rank (at least for most 16 DDR4 DIMMs)
2x8 GB = dual channel, single rank

Ryzen and other memory-sensitive CPUs may gain some extra performance with the first option.

For storage I'd recommend NVME+SATA SSD combo. A smaller NVME as a boot & system drive and a big SATA one for everything else. Even a slow SATA SSD will beat the pants off of any mechanical drive.

While I've only been using SSDs for a little over a year (very latecomer), the few times I had to go back to using an HDD on different hardware just felt painful. I don't miss the spinning disk noise either.

I think it's better the other way around. The OS on NVME (instead of SATA): you won't notice a big difference. But it's likely that future games will make better use of the NVME speeds (see new consoles).
I'm speculating something of course / also, I don't think the OP is very interested in modern games...

2TB SATA SSD is still $180, and that's with the Cyber Monday discount. My (entire) laptop cost less than that. (Then again, it cost about as much as the CPU that I'm looking at normally costs; it's more expensive at the moment.)

Would go for 32 GB ram.
Somehow my pc uses 12GB at rest

Windows 7 and 10 use all the RAM you've got for the heck of it really, it doesn't mean they need it to function. Just how they're designed.

I've yet to see a gaming hardware channel find a game that needed more than 16GB. When you combine our RAM with VRAM we're well past what even the new consoles are using. That said, I'm sure it'll start happening eventually. Some games do want more than the typical 6-8GB of VRAM already.

i don't really know how much ram used in compiling software, so i'll go 16GB but if the prices r still low, get 32GB or more(use the extra stick for future, if u dont need them now)

nvme is much faster than SATA, if you want bigger storage then nvme is gonna cost a whole lot more than SATA, if u need the transfer speed(read/write) for big massive project then nvme will be better