True, and in my opinion it was a worse experience than the previous physical one.

I agree with this, while also thinking it was basically physical-enough that the home button still served the same UI purpose about as well as before. But yes it was a step down from the real button.

The haptic sensor is almost as good as the physical button, and the trade off of not having to worry about it breaking (which was likely after a few years with the physical ones) is well worth it for me.