Yeah, that's what I don't understand. People who want shortcuts already use the keys. So the touchbar is for people who don't know shortcuts exist, or something?
There are a few cases where it makes sense to drag your finger along the touchbar but we already have a touchpad for dragging. The entire thing could have been implemented as a virtual on-screen bar. Press Fn, get an overlay at the bottom of the screen that shows the same thing as in the touchbar. Now you can click, drag, whatever. Release Fn and the thing goes away.
Maybe I'm overthinking this. Fo sho I'm still bitter they jettisoned my escape key
*sigh*
I've a few more weeks to wait until the Least Exciting Macbook Upgrade Ever arrives
EDIT:
Well well well. It looks like my suggestion above is a
thing that already exists. It even works by pressing Fn!