I did that when I was using a MacBook at my old job and it helped but the problem was that it was too easy to accidentally push the buttons on the touchbar by mistake.

I've had to all but disable mine on any newer MacBook I use, too. It's become part of my first-day setup routine. Otherwise getting a finger near one of the "buttons" on the touchbar triggers it. So, away go any "buttons" near where my fingers might ever go, and away goes the per-app settings which override it, leaving me with [esc] [scrn light down] [scrn light up] on the left side, biiiiig gap, then three volume control buttons way on the right.

My personal machine's still a 2014. Keyboard's much better (almost as good as the design that came before it), I don't miss the larger touchpad at all when I'm on mine with its smaller one, and I do not want to pay extra money for a touchbar that I basically have to disable first thing to have a usable machine. Oh and I have to disable force-touch because otherwise I can't reliably click-n-drag files. So all the new fancy stuff I turn off because I can't use the machine with them on.

Getting rid of the long cable for the charging brick while raising prices is a slap in the face, too. Oh and all my stuff's still USB-A. Friggin' Apple. I hate that they can mess up so badly and still be far enough ahead of the competition that it's hard to switch.

Yeah, annoyingly I used to lightly rest my fingers on the brightness/escape function keys, so now every once in a while I won't pay attention and the screen is now either full blast or off >:-[

I'll take real buttons and the $100 the Touchbar costs back.

Thanks, I didn't know that. I've changed to the standard "Expanded Control Strip" and it is much better. I found the constantly updating touchbar visually distracting.

you can't rest your fingers on the "keys" before pressing them

you can't feel what "key" you will be pressing

you get no feedback when you press a "key"

for the last one, there is an app which makes the touchpad vibrate... which really isn't the same feeling though

so yeah... that touchbar is a useless POS...