The article doesn't mention 3D touch -- is that out of the picture for the SE?
"""
No 3D Touch
Sources told 9to5Mac that the reason behind this is that the front-facing flash requires the new display tech we’ve seen on the iPhone 6s, which brings us to 3D touch.
The flagship feature on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which offers deeper interaction with various applications on the iPhone through hard taps and long taps, will not be present on the iPhone SE.
"""
But now when have to write text on a phone without it, I notice immediately, it's mildly frustrating.
Not very. It's mostly a few shortcuts, the only genuine feature is that you can force-touch the keyboard to get a sort of trackpad surface (for more precise cursor movement in text)