I am an I10, but have been an M10 in the past. I have helped with analyzing performance, and have had to lay one person off. Ideally there is a metric like quota attainment to compare people to their peers. Another example metric I have used is billable hours delivered vs compensation (i.e. do you pay for yourself). Regardless, those lists are checked by managers for feedback to see if there are any issues with the metric. Then the horse trading starts. "I like Sally, and I have some budget so I will take her on my team".. things like that. HR likes performance metrics because they are less biased.
If you work in an area without clear metrics, then peer and leader feedback is primarily how you are ranked. I have seen lists of people ranked 1 to n. The conversations between managers can be intense when comparing between teams. Let me be clear, no manager I know likes doing this. It is the worst part of the job.
Your relationships with your peers, subordinates, customers (internal or external) and manager matters. If you are unreliable, a poor communicator, and considered a pain in the a-s to work with - then you may be in trouble. Mistakes will be made in a large layoff, but Dell is so huge that those mistakes won't matter much.
I am here because my FY23 was pretty lousy work wise and I am compared against I10s who tend to have had some success at Dell. We are expensive so that makes us vulnerable during cost cutting.
Good luck everyone