Did you read the transcript of the event? Touchscreen laptops were specifically called out as a bad idea in the current form, because your arm gets tired touching a vertical surface.
I thought it was just one of those crazy things that companies patent anyway - but with the iOS-ification of OSX this looks to be more and more likely.
I doubt they'd do this with the laptops - that just seems to close the gap too much between the iPad and the MacBook Air, honestly.
Touch Screen would work fine on an Air, at least.
In general, the idea that Jobs constantly says something sucks and then does it himself mostly seems to come from people over-interpreting what he says. In this particular case, I can't think of what you're referring to. Do you have a link?
This sounds like a real problem to me - my desk at school is too high up, so I've even ditched my laptop stand as otherwise I'd have to lift my arms up to reach the keyboard half the time. I would definitely be uncomfortable constantly touching a screen. And what do you think those enormous trackpads are for?