I know what they meant here. The touch bar seems like a keyboard but it's not, because of the sliders and customization.

My original touch bar layout mirrored the pre-touch bar layout out of familiarity. Recently I've learned how to use it as intended (sliders instead of up and down buttons, using application-custom buttons). I realized that I was just being an old man about the touch bar before.

I think one of the key advantages of a non-keyboard interaction is that you don't have to look at the pointing device to see what you're doing. Touch-bar precisely needs that, especially given that there is no tactile feedback. And it's the main reason why I think the Touch-bar destroys productivity.

Maybe it is a zen koan, designed to find the nature of the keyboard within and without.

As the apple keyboard strokes become shorter, and the gestures become more numerous, we become one. ;)