I bought a four-year-old MacBook Pro instead of a new one. Here’s why

Alex Blake for Digital Trends:

Apple no longer innovates.” It’s a line we’ve been hearing from naysayers EVER since Tim Cook took over the reigns from Steve Jobs… Apple does innovate, of course, and the latest MacBook Pro models — with monstrous eight-core i9 processors and Touch Bars aplenty — are no exception. There’s enough innovation in both software and hardware to impress even the most curmudgeonly of cynics.
So when the time rolled around for me to kit myself out with a shiny new MacBook, you would think I headed straight for the 2019 MacBook Pro and paid like it was going out of fashion. Wrong. I completely ignored it. In fact, I didn’t so much ignore it as turn around and high-tail it in the opposite direction. I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro instead.
Why opt for a four-year-old MacBook Pro instead of the latest and greatest model from just a few months ago? After all, this year’s model comes with a keyboard that’s even less likely to fail and ignore your key presses. How’s that for innovation?
A 2015 MacBook Pro has more than enough power for most people, and unless there’s a specific reason for you to get a newer model — the Core i9 processor, say — upgrading is not strictly necessary. My demanding workload of browsing cat videos in my pajamas does not require a Touch Bar.

MacDailyNews Take: Keyboard avoidance is a thing, but it’s another overblown issue. We have several MacBook/Air/Pro models with butterfly keyboards of various vintages and and they all work perfectly (it’s we who’re prone to making the typos, not the keyboards).
Beyond the keyboard, there is something to be said for assessing your needs (now and into the foreseeable future) and buying an older model that’ll suit you just fine and cost way less than the newest models. More people should do that, actually.