Just to add a data point as a developer - I bought the 15" second-tier tMBP and absolutely love it, but have to agree the Touch Bar, though intriguing, is currently a bit "meh".
But all the strong points he mentions in the article are more than just "nice", they are really amazing. The big ones for me are:
The SSD speed - I scanned all 300 GB of my current usage with DaisyDisk in 8 seconds. 8. Seconds.
The keyboard - this is easily the most satisfying keyboard I have ever had.
I can see why you'd go for the "MacBook Escape", but the 15" model only comes with Touch Bar, so that decided the issue for me. Plus, I think Apple may still have some tricks up their sleeve for the Touch Bar - allowing us to create our own custom touch bar buttons per app which run our own actions would be incredibly useful, I think.
But all the strong points he mentions in the article are more than just "nice", they are really amazing. The big ones for me are:
The SSD speed - I scanned all 300 GB of my current usage with DaisyDisk in 8 seconds. 8. Seconds.
The keyboard - this is easily the most satisfying keyboard I have ever had.
I can see why you'd go for the "MacBook Escape", but the 15" model only comes with Touch Bar, so that decided the issue for me. Plus, I think Apple may still have some tricks up their sleeve for the Touch Bar - allowing us to create our own custom touch bar buttons per app which run our own actions would be incredibly useful, I think.