I'm still enjoying and taking gentle care of my mid-2012(!) mbp15r, and dreading the day she's finally done. no idea what the replacement will be.
My work machine on the other hand is a 2016 mbp (with touchbar and butterfly keyboard). I swear the thing is haunted from all its weirdness and glitching. Then there's the keyboard...
It's totally serviceable under El Capitan.
It's sluggish with supported versions, though. As a CI box for PhotoStructure, tests take literally 2x longer under Sierra and High Sierra than they do under El Capitan.