Yes, the new MBP is both the most expensive to buy and repair and AC is almost mandatory IMO.
As someone else said, any repair is going to be expensive. Everything inside is closed, glued, soldered, etc. But the likelihood of regular function keys breaking seems much higher than the touchbar because of the mechanical parts. The touchbar is relatively low tech so it's not a likely risk. Anything can happen though so get AC if concerned.
I said everything will be expensive, but the touchbar breaking in the first place is probably less likely than the other mechanical parts.
In this day and age, any life you get out of a laptop over 3 years is bonus time. Not saying you shouldn't expect a computer to still work after 3 years, but factoring the obsolescence, wear and tear, resulting depreciation, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect to buy a replacement anytime after 3 years. This varies of course, so I hope no one jumps down my throat claiming they always use computers for 6 years. There's a good financial reason extended warranties don't go much past a certain point, the expectation of major repairs on older machines combined with the lower value makes it uneconomical. TLDR, you are worrying too much about this and going into what-if scenarios.
What if you walk outside and fall down breaking your leg? Should you stop walking outside because there is a risk you might fall down?
You are representing yourself as a college student now. When you first joined, you represented yourself as an adult who was rich (you named cars, and other things you had etc.)
