Built into MacOS itself is the ability to do something many vi and emacs users do regardless of the presence of a touchbar:
Remap caps lock (a useless key anyway) to escape.
This is in System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys > pick 'Escape' from the dropdown next to 'Caps lock key'.
If you wanna get fancy you can rewire right-ctrl or whatnot to esc too if you like that.
There are also 3rd party utilities like [Karabiner](https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/) which is undoubtedly the front runner for mac remappers (And public domain to boot). It's very scriptable; for example, if you want, you can set it up such that a longer press on caps lock really is caps lock (making use of the led for visual feedback that you engaged caps lock), but a short tap is escape. This does mean the ESC cannot register until you release.
If only there was some software to make this keyboard not sound like a slap fight between 2 otters...
Remap caps lock (a useless key anyway) to escape.
This is in System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys > pick 'Escape' from the dropdown next to 'Caps lock key'.
If you wanna get fancy you can rewire right-ctrl or whatnot to esc too if you like that.
There are also 3rd party utilities like [Karabiner](https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/) which is undoubtedly the front runner for mac remappers (And public domain to boot). It's very scriptable; for example, if you want, you can set it up such that a longer press on caps lock really is caps lock (making use of the led for visual feedback that you engaged caps lock), but a short tap is escape. This does mean the ESC cannot register until you release.
If only there was some software to make this keyboard not sound like a slap fight between 2 otters...