This breaks the HN guidelines by being uncivil as well as uncharitable in the sense requested here: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."

Your comment would be fine without that first bit. Would you mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and following the guidelines when commenting here?

that unpolite remark underlines the issue pretty well: one one side there is a solution, on the other side there is a poor implemented idea

Plus side: less RSI-feelings in my left wrist. Down side: muscle memory makes you look incompetent on other machines.

I always hit it with 100% accuracy just like I did on my previous MacBook.

And I am not making excuses for Apple. I think they should've made Escape key in particular a physical key.

These new Macbooks are the Wii U's of laptops.

I'm not sure exactly when it happens, but I think it happens when you have some background context open on the touchbar (like some app's music controls). The X dismisses the bar you have open and then you get esc back. Often there's no esc at all and just the X.