I’m in DESPERATE need of upgrading my 2013 rMBP for my work (it can’t handle the construction documents I work with anymore) and still haven’t pulled the trigger due to the keyboard issues. I’m too much of a wimp to stray from MacOS.
My brother has the 2016 and it’s been a very frustrating experience for him.
Just me personally, I'm quite satisfied that the keyboard comes with a 4 year warranty. Lots of other stuff can go wrong before that 4 years is up.
If you can't get your work done, I wouldn't wait any longer than a few more months when the 16" MBP is expected to be released. Make a decision and go with it. Time is money.
I bought a 2016 MBP despite absolutely hating the keyboard. I needed the machine and the thing about keyboards is that you can always supply your own if it comes down to it. I frequently do that anyway. I really like keyboards. I eventually got used to the 2016’s keyboard and now I actually like it.
I'm on a 2018 MBP now and the keyboard on the 2018 is better than the one on the 2016. I'm not sure what your brother's experiences were like, but my 2016 mishaps were minor. I got some stuck keys, but they all resolved within a few days and eventually with greater use, everything seemed to loosen up and it never stuck on me again after the first year.
I've had my 2018 for half a year now and the keyboard hasn't had a single hitch. I'd buy it again especially knowing that I would get a new battery too if the keyboard failed under a 4 year warranty. While I don't expect the keyboard to die before 4 years. I'm pretty sure my battery would be really hurting after three.
The common belief here is that the keyboards are fragile by design and that they're all going to develop problems. My experience is opposite of that. I barely used my 2016's keyboard intially because I hated the feel and it was in those days of light usage that I got some jams. When I started to use it regularly, I beat the crap out of it and it survived. I beat the crap out of it because the battery was dying and I wanted a new battery under warranty.
I hit the keys so hard that I snapped off one of the keycaps... yeah, maybe a little excessive. On the bright side, it did give me a chance to get a close up look at the butterfly mechanism and understand how it's possible to jam it. A few breadcrumbs or dust ain't gonna do it. It's not fragile. Whatever problems the keyboard has is real, but not due to the mechanism itself being fragile.
