Differentiation.
I don’t like the touch bar but I like that they tried. Now please take it a little further and clean up the line-up.
I want all the weird future bits to go in a ‘modern’ ultra portable. Take the 12” macbook and put an A11 or theoretical A12 in it. If there’s a non keyboard touch input in the macbook line try it there.
Take the macbook pro and stuff it full of ports. And shit on intel until they produce an appropriate chipset that’ll support more than 16gb. Or at least threaten them with the above mentioned ultraportable until they get off the pot and get it done. Ports, ram, a small concession on form factor & weight so a 13-14ish inch model can be useful for 8 hours on a train. Oh and more ports.
Everything else tht’s a little more mass market, a little more beige, that can go in the macbook air line. Set a reasonable price point and sell little-better-than-entry-level spec’ed machine with modern components to every Tom, Dick & Harry who gives them money for the current air but really shouldn’t.
Have courage Apple, take a little risk, leverage some branding to make a statement and let the pro moniker mean something.