Rui Carmo
“The current laptop line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not, and that’s a cost users shouldn’t need to pay for a niche technology without a future.”
Precisely. I have yet to find a single situation in which the Touch Bar was unequivocally useful (let alone irreplaceable), and since I last wrote about it I’ve come to resent the premium involved – I get a lot more mileage out of the Touch ID sensor and the extra USB 3 ports than anything else, and still miss having not just a proper Esc key but a “normal” function/media row that my fingers can find their way around by themselves.
I really don’t think Apple would be wise to try to add the Touch Bar to anything else on its line at this point, either - at least not without haptic feedback of some sort.
Even then, if there’s an option not to have the Touch Bar at all, it will be my default the next time around.