Looks like you and I have different definitions of "flop" :)
As for HN multiple articles with "less than enthusiastic views", yeah, there have been a lot of them. Apple products are pretty much guaranteed to be a polarizing topic. There's been a lot of comments associated with those articles as well. I personally like to dig into it and see what points are being made on all sides, take into account my own biases (Apple user since System 5), and look for facts that can confirm or deny the points being made. I take the views in the articles submitted to Hacker News and the comments as, for the most part, anecdotal views of a small, opinionated, sometimes thoughtful, demographic. If I counted up the number of people who have commented on Apple-related articles, I estimate it's fewer than 5000. I don't know how that correlates with the entire consumer market, but I strongly doubt it's representative.
Considering the MacBook Pro was just announced on October 27 (10 days ago), there are few hard numbers out there, and very few people have actually used the Touch Bar at all, much less in anger. That doesn't mean people aren't entitled to their opinions, but it does mean we should take the lack of hands-on experience into account. macrumors.com is one of the few places that has some actual numbers out there at this time. I'll take those numbers over opinion pieces. If you know of other numbers out there, please do share. I want to know more about this (which is why I'm participating in this discussion).
From the article you posted:
"Slice's figures are unofficial and based on electronic receipts sent to email addresses following a purchase."
Also, I don't see a dateline on the article (if I missed it, please share), but I believe it's from well over a year ago, based on the age of the comments. I would weight the Wall Street Journal from April 2016[0] more heavily than Slice some time in 2015. As for publishing sales figures, you're right: it doesn't look like Apple breaks out Apple Watch sales from its other devices.
Also, note that the WSJ article is from before the release of the Watch Series 2.
Please note that I am not arguing that the Apple watch is a huge success, or that it's perfect: I'm arguing it's not a flop.
[0]: http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-watch-with-sizable-sales-c...
As for Apple vs Dell: They've always been very different companies. The closest they've been was likely during the Gil Amelio years when Apple produced a dizzyingly confusing array of Macintosh desktops, and nearly killed the company. Also look at the comparative success of Dell vs Apple. What is the value of the "20 new laptop models" Dell releases each year? What is the profit for the company? Sure, all things being equal, I'd like Apple to rev hardware more frequently than they've been. I think, given Apple's priorities, they released the best MacBook Pro they could at this time. There are people who aren't happy with the tradeoffs they made. There's still a huge demand for what they did release.
None of this, in my eyes, supports the idea that the Apple Watch is a flop or that there is not much enthusiasm for the new Mac.