Apple magic mice and trackpads are all brandeddesigned as Multi-Touch devices so every brush and even close calls will register with the capacitive surface as opposed to direct pressure at one point. Just like the iPhone and iOS based devices, there are dozens of gestures in all devices with even more gestures inavailable on the newer devices.
If a single touch device (or multi touch that tracks fewer digits or less gestures) is what you ultimately want, that would explain all the confusion and need to learn and then retrain your digits how to not trigger any of the many ways gesture recognition will foil your intentions. Even if you disable most of the gestures in settings, the hardware is still tracking all those touch points even if the OS ignores some the hardware recognizes.
The mental model needed to move a pointer with a different surface handling the mouse down/up control is very different than a multi touch mental model of input. Just like those of us that learned to drive with a manual transmission, something is missing, even when we find vehicles shift paddles on the steering wheel. The old design allows behaviors the new cannot, despite the other new things multi touch allows.