I have been using a MacBook with Touch Bar for the past couple of weeks. I used this panel regularly for the first time. I can see why Apple wanted this to stick – when it works, it works well. For example, Zoom puts the buttons for full screen, mute, and video on/off front and centre. It, no doubt, speeds up the flow. But searching for the escape button is an absolute pain!
Apple screwed up the execution. Instead of replacing the row of function keys, this should have been an additional panel above the keyboard. It was ok even if this was available on the larger MacBooks only. But, alas. Apple knows better.