I can't tell if you literally think that's what it is, or if you're just trying to be dismissive. Emoji support in text fields is just one of the many things it does. It's a dynamic set of buttons that change depending on your task, and I actually really want it. I've been running a third-party app called Touché (https://red-sweater.com/touche/) which gives you the touch bar in a window on your computer, so I can see what things it offers (this isn't actually very useful for actually using, because if I have to switch to my mouse and click a button, there's probably a faster way anyway), and there's some cool stuff in there. What looks especially useful is if you're using Xcode to debug an app, the touch bar has a dedicated button that pauses the debugger, even if Xcode isn't in the foreground, and AFAIK there's no other way to accomplish this (even if you set up an applescript to pause the debugger and hook it up to a keypress, the app will still see you beginning to press the keys before it pauses, potentially changing the state that you were trying to debug at).
> Since 2013, they don't have a desktop for desktop (not web) developers any more. […] iMacs are noisy under load
I haven't ever noticed my iMac being noisy. I'm pretty sure it's quieter than my laptop, and my laptop is pretty darn quiet.
> and who knows how long they will last when kept heated the whole time
I'm really confused as to why you said this. If you think iMacs are noisy, then you think they have strong fans, which means there should be no problem with heat. Now of course I don't think iMacs are noisy, but I think they still do have good heat dissipation and have no worries whatsoever about lifetime.
If you want a developer's desktop, you really should look at an iMac.
They've always had some process that went runaway and ate most of the CPU for no reason. Just the name of the process changed across hardware and software versions.
The problem is, now they're removing an useful indicator to swipe the current problem (and I'm sure a large amount of people do have it) under the rug. It's this decision that worries me, not that they botched something on this laptop generation.
1. The main innovation in the newest MBPros is... an Emoji keyboard accessory? Okay, that might actually be useful but:
2. Worse, said newest laptops have battery issues to which Apple responds by removing the battery ETA indicator? That was actually useful since I knew how much battery life I could rely on while doing the same task.
3. Since 2013, they don't have a desktop for desktop (not web) developers any more.
Minis are too underpowered, iMacs are noisy under load and who knows how long they will last when kept heated the whole time, the Mac Pro is a video editing machine and little else.
Right now I'm doing fine with a MBPro and a hackintosh, but if they keep making dubious decisions about the laptops and not offering a developer's desktop, I'll have to consider Linux again.