I wouldn't be so sure. They took a ton of heat for the price-performance ratio of the 2016 MacBook Pros. I think they "get it" and understand that people need something with better performance at a price that's more in line with machines having similar internals/configuration on the PC side. The 2016+ was far, far too expensive for what we got.... I know from experience; I bought a 2016, 15", 512 GB, and it's not a good machine for the money—not even close to the value of my previous 2012 MBP. My hope is that they're thinking of this as a machine for non-corporate Pro users, who can't afford the new Mac Pro, could benefit from portability, but don't want to sacrifice internals for slimness. That whole form vs function element was a huge pain-point with the 2016+ machines (that wasn't there with the pre-2016 MBPs), and I do think they'll try to do something to address it.
Of course, they could be so blinded by their own smoke screen that they miss the point completely, and do exactly what you're suggesting. If they do, I'll certainly be very, very disappointed and extremely pissed off, as will a huge number of other long-time users. In all likelihood, I'd buy a refurbed 2018 or 2019, in that case...