For Synaptics trackpads at least, turning off center tapping IS NOT AN OPTION, which the config panel makes quite clear:
"Tapping in the center of the TouchPad always produces a left click.
If you clear the Enable Tap Zones check box, then a tap anywhere on the TouchPad produces a left click."
In other words, you can choose between tapping "anywhere" and getting ONE EXTREMELY OBJECTIONABLE action (unwanted LEFT-CLICK), or you can fiddle with it and configure tapping the corners for up to four ADDITIONAL kinds of nonsense. But the one thing you CANNOT do is turn off UNWANTED LEFT-CLICK.
Yes, you can reduce OVERALL trackpad sensitivity, but you can't reduce TAP sensitivity relative to motion-control sensitivity. You will experience lots of unintended left-clicks, because the trackpad driver is very aggressively looking for them, in order to be "super helpful". Taps that weren't taps. Taps that didn't even involve lifting your finger.
I find this appalling -from an interface elegance standpoint but more importantly, from a LEGAL standpoint since a LEFT-CLICK means "DO THIS ACTION". Now, I might be in the minority (am I?) but I don't want my trackpad left-clicking "YES I WANT THAT" willy-nilly and without my consent, and thereby signing me up for a recurring $9.99/month charge, downloading a dangerous or annoying executable, or visiting a link I don't want.
The problem is probably hubris --Synaptics thinks that the patented (yes, PATENTED) diddly-crap they've added to trackpad behavior, is an "enhancement" and by definition an improvement that everybody wants. It's their baby. To them it's incomprehensible that some of us might not think their screaming spawn is cute and adorable, so the option to strangle the horrible thing isn't present in the config
I'm reminded of Muzak, aka "elevator music", that hideous un-music that is nerve-wracking (to some of us) because it is deliberately engineered to be as insipid as possible and therefore "non-objectionable". The one button elevator riders never see, is a "KILL THE MUZAK" button. The purveyors of Muzak assure their buyers that "everybody likes it". Bleccccchhhh!
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