I have the non touchbar version. The keyboard is the one thing that has surprised me. I've done a complete 180 and love it. I bought this to replace my 2008 Macbook and at first found the travel too shallow but now I can actually type much faster than on the old one and I'm convinced it's better. I hope that any of the issues you mention come up within the 1 year warranty period though.

Your issues about the touch bar are the reason I bought the non touch bar version, I use function keys too much to have the physical ones gone, also I'd rather not have it go to sleep and prefer to have the bigger battery. EDIT: just adding that I did spend time testing the touch bar version in the Apple store as the price difference was not a major factor for this type of one time purchase for me, and I think if it's a good idea to do so if you live near one.