Sorry, this is very over-exaggerated.
Borrowed the MBP Touch Bar for an evening last night, in order to compare with the new MBA side by side.
The MBA on full brightness is comparable to the MBP Touch Bar on -2 points from full brightness. Take that for what it's worth.
What I can say however, is that the display appeared very, very yellow, out of the box compared to the MBP.
I was ready to bring the MBA back, but then I tried calibrating the display by increasing the white point to >7500, as suggested by other users.
This actually improved it a lot! Made it very close to the MBP, in terms of color. Text looked sharper as well (I guess it's to do with contrast).
It's still not as good as the Pro, but it's now improved to the point where it's not really a problem for me.
Hope this helps someone else.