I had ordered the Touch Bar 15" and changed my mind when I saw the configurations in the refurb store.
The 2016 MBP 15" is an amazing machine, but makes too many compromises and is a v1.0 product. This isn't so much Apple'a fault, but they're hamstrung by component suppliers and the current transitional state of the industry and associated standards.
CPU and iGPU: We can blame Intel for falling behind on this one. Problems with 14nm manufacturing led to the slippage of Broadwell, especially the Iris Pro versions that Apple would've wanted. Apple at that point decided to skip Broadwell and go directly to Skylake. However, Skylake with Iris Pro was also delayed and ended up being a very low-yield part, which is why we've got GT2 graphics. In addition, Intel now appears rolls out new chips in a staggered fashion with the lowest-end SKUs coming out first, with the highest-end SKUs landing 6-9 months later. This means that a "high-end" machine will often be based on an "old" CPU, even though it's the best part available.
RAM: Again, Apple is being held back by Intel. The LPDDR3 spec maxes out at 32GB (probably due to signal load on the memory controller), and no Intel CPU supports LPDDR4 yet. The spiel about power consumption of regular DDR4 while true, is only the PR story. What makes more sense is that it would not be financially attractive To offer a DDR4 version JUST for the 32 GB option, as it would require a completely different logic board.
dGPU: Again, Apple is being held back by component suppliers here. While we would all love an nVidia Pascal GPU, nVidia doesn't make one that can fit within the MBP's thermal profile. AMD Polaris 10 is actually a very reasonable compromise here, especially the 460 version that is essentially the only fully-enabled Polaris 10 available right now. It's also arguable that the only reasons the dGPU exists are because Iris Pro isn't really available and because the iGPU doesn't support the required 4K/5K outputs.
Touch Bar: Innovative and shows a ton of potential, but unproven. It remains to be seen whether this catches on, and as a result it's not worth paying a premium for it just to be a guinea pig early adopter. I'm wondering if it will follow many other v1.0 features, getting significantly refined in a future iteration (Taptic Touch Bar?)
Wide-colour screen: No complaints here, really. It sounds like "metal oxide" with 30% less power consumption implies IGZO, and admittedly OLED is not quite there yet at the sizes and resolutions we are talking about. No glowing logo? Who cares!
Ports: USB-C with TB3 is definitely the future. However, the market is not quite there yet. A full and gradual market transition is probably 2-3 years away from completion. Apple is definitely brave here, but this may be the driver for the rest of the market.
Chassis: The new chassis is sexy, but I think many users would've preferred a smaller footprint (ex: bezel-less display) while keeping the previous thickness and battery capacity.
In summary, I think Apple is caught in a perfect storm where the industry is going through a certain amount of upheaval. Component manufacturers have fallen behind and are unable to provide silicon that aligns perfectly with Apple's industrial design vision. They're forced to make more functional compromises in the silicon to reach their goal of thin and light. I suspect that this may push Apple into seriously considering in-house AX chips for Mac.
