I'm never buying another MacBook with a Touch Bar. Ever. I've learned that lesson the hard way. I refuse to pay 3,500$ and have to put up with something actively hindering my work.

Getting rid of the Touch Bar might be realistic. If only it were realistic that they would add a USB-A and HDMI port back to it too...

The HDMI is apparently coming back, according to Ming-chi Kuo. No word on USB-A though.

Out of curiosity, if they kept the touch bar but as an addition to a row of function keys, rather than a replacement, would you still have an issue with the TB?

Personally I would rather it was gone. My fingers are big enough that they brush the edge of the touchbar while I type and volume/brightness/whatever just flaps endlessly while I'm trying to get work done. I have to use an external keyboard with that thing.

Btw you can lock the mode of the touch bar and customize/remove the items.

I doubt that would happen if there were a row of physical half-height function keys between the numbers and the touchbar. But I also doubt they would make that laptop, it would require a smaller touchpad and most people wouldn't want that, myself included.

Or 4:3 screen, but we can keep dreaming there...

My hope is that they offer the touchbar as a configurable option on all MacBooks going forward, at least until they realize no one is buying the ones with the touchbar included. Maybe some video editors like it? It's a failed experiment from where I'm sitting.

Or they could, you know, just do the obvious thing and give it a touch screen like their other devices.

For me, I think it's a novel concept, but it's rarely used in practice. I like having it as a scrub bar for video/audio apps or for fine-tuned volume control and it's nice for emojis. But other than that, I rarely interact with it.

Every now and then I overcome decades of muscle memory and push the buttons on a modal from the touch bar.

The ironic thing is that I would use it a lot, if, and only if, there were any browser which displays tabs as favicons on the touch bar.

But there just... isn't. It's completely baffling, the Safari preview is useless and Firefox has a 'touch to select address bar' button which I always forget is there.

I've found it occasionally helpful when using a fullscreen app, such as having access to Camera/Mute controls while on a video conference without having to remember the hotkey.

But I also wouldn't be particularly sad if it disappeared.