Apple never committed to it across the line, improved it in any way, or convinced developers to support it in interesting ways. And it eliminated the function key row, which a lot of us actually use—I rely heavily on mine and wouldn’t even consider a Touch Bar Mac because of that.
I didn’t have time to check that, but you’re probably right. However, this is an entirely new MacBook Air, with a complete redesign and significantly improved specs beyond the M2 chip. If it’s only $100 more for a bigger, brighter, more colorful screen, 1080p webcam, full-height function key row, and MagSafe 3, along with the M2 performance increases, I’m okay with that.