I think it was a good idea to rethink function keys it's just that for their current uses, the touch bar is worse. Things like steering a debugger is an eyes-on-the-road activity benefiting strongly from physical keys.

I would be much more supportive of ideas like "keys with displays" or a non-interactive strip to act as labels. What I dream of is physical pixels for tactile displays or a fleet of magnetic microbots that can swarm together to form switches, knobs and sliders at will.