They can, they just compromised on an overengineered but stupid design so that they could shave off half a mm on their laptop thickness.

Butterfly keyboard works fine for me. It's actually my favorite MacBook keyboard so far.

Agreed. I have both the 2019 16" and 2018 15" side by side, I greatly prefer the butterfly keyboard.

They made working keyboards for years and have gone back to doing so. The bit in the middle was a blip.

nah. the "gone back" wasn't far enough. I liked say the first generation macbook pro, with concave keys and longer throw (although the creaky case was not as nice as the sculpted aluminum ones)

I had a friend with an old old powerbook and the key shape reminded me of a thinkpad.

They can do it, but the flat short throw keys are too form over function.

I still use a 2014 era Apple wireless keyboard and prefer it over any of the mechanical variants I’ve tried. Key travel distance is a personal metric.

the first macbook pro didn't have THAT long a throw.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/MacBook_...

Right, I had that mac and the KB was fine, as is the 2014 wireless model I have, despice neother being long throw. I'm fine with short throw, it's a preference.

The 2016 keyboard fiasco was too far for me though, and even now with my 16" 2019 mac with the "fixed" keyboard, I still prefer the wireless 2014 model, or the KB from my 2014 MBP.

I, for one, prefer a keyboard that is comfortable to type on even if doesn’t have the greatest travel over a significantly thicker laptop.

I’ve had many macs and all the keyboards have been best in class. I just skipped buying a model with the bad keyboard. That was made possible by the fact that their laptops have serious longevity so I could just hold onto machine until they fixed it.