In my own opinion all the negative attention was correct. It's not at all unusable, but it's been strictly worse than the previous generation.
The lack of tactile feedback on the touchbar makes me have to look at the keyboard to use it which is a step back. It also doesn't attempt to verify that i'm actually trying to press a button which makes them easier to accidentally press than a real button.
The keyboard is okay, but the buttons occasionally stick and require finagling to fix, typing is marginally slower and less friendly on my wrists than the previous gen.
I preferred using actual right click on my trackpad and on the newer version that's entirely impractical and I have not seen any benefit to the size increase.
None of my issues are dealbreakers and I'm sure most people find the new version to be fantastic.
Edit: just wanted to add that I find the 2016 mbp is amazingly light and the screen is gorgeous. Battery life is great as usual. In summary just the missing ports and the flat keyboard that I do not like.
Why are you not using two finger click for the secondary click instead of the area click? With new force trackpad you can click anywhere your fingers are it's so much more convenient in my opinion.
Do you hate it because you read a lot of negative initial posts about? I've used the new keyboard for half a year now and it become the one I enjoy more now compared to an older one. The touch bar is a nice addition, I can't say I can't leave without it but it's definitely helps me in a lot of apps and I certainly can't say that I hate it, why would anyone hate it? It's a helpful addition.