[mjamesaustin]

The hate was because it replaced function keys many people use by tactile touch, without looking. Doing the same on a touch screen is very difficult.

If the bar had been added on top of those, I don't think there would've been the same kind of hate for it.

[landr0id]

I didn't really mind the fn keys being there. I rarely use function keys unless I'm RDP'd to a Windows machine.

What drove me crazy though was the escape key. They later added the physical escape key back but I think at that point it was a bit too late.

[phatskat]

I’ve always been a “remap capslock to escape” kind of guy (vim), so I didn’t mind much. Access to the brightness (screen and keyboard) and volume slider was neat but superfluous with the OG fn keys. Context-driven controls were probably the best thing about the touch bar, and I don’t think it got enough love to make that stick.

[tokenscoper]

Adding to the list of grievances, the functionality and the options it presented differed from app to app. I understand that the function keys also change their function app to app, but the visual noise the Touch Bar (wow - the word even gets autocorrected to have the right capitalization!) added as you switched between apps was too distracting.

[SoftTalker]

I haven't used function keys since I used mainframe applications on a 3270 terminal.

[SmirkingRevenge]

Ah yea, I've only owned one with the physical escape key. That would be annoying.

[prepend]

Even without tactile elements it was two keys to use function keys.

I would have been fine with the touchbar if it just default displayed function keys. Hitting fn+f5 to quicksave is annoying.

[plufz]

But wasn’t that just a setting changing it to default to fn? It was some time since I last used them…

[troupo]

> But wasn’t that just a setting changing it to default to fn

They relented and added this settings two years in, IIRC. It wasn't there from the start