I like the following logic: you could always disable it, and only switch on for the time someone else is using your laptop, so win-win.

But getting rid of 7-row keyboard and clicky mouse buttons, so that a huge trackpad would fit? Not worth it.

Eh, as a T440s owner (granted, my first Thinkpad) I was a bit apprehensive about the lack of buttons but I actually exclusively use the Trackpoint now. The clickpad does click down like a button which is a little weird at first but you quickly get used to where the "buttons" are and then it just feels like normal. I use the middle click scroll a lot too. At least in Linux you can adjust the precise locations of the buttons yourself, I think in Windows you also get some options for configuring the button locations if the defaults don't feel right. Right now I feel like this is the best input system I've had on a laptop.