Can a 16“ MacBook Pro be reverted to an OS before Catalina? I want to get the new 16" Macbook Pro which ships with Catalina, but I don't want Catalina at least for now because of how many legacy apps it breaks, not to mention Avid/Protools hardware which typically doesn't update drivers for up to a year after a new OS release. 

I understand that new Macs sometimes have drivers they need which bundled only with that latest release, but I'm not sure how set in stone this is. Where can I find more solid information about this? I'm really Catalina-shy at this point.
The 16&quot; MacBook Pro cannot run anything earlier than Catalina.

Sometimes you can “downgrade” the operating system on a new Mac to an earlier version of macOS, but you should never count on it.

If that Mac is completely new hardware (like the new 16&quot; MacBook Pro) then Apple never adds driver support for older versions of macOS.

If you order a Mac which could run an older version of macOS, even though it comes installed with a newer version of macOS, it might be able to downgrade.

For example, if Apple released a minor update to the 2019 MacBook Air line, and you ordered a new MacBook Air and it arrived with Catalina on it, you might be able to install Mojave on it. But you would never be able to install High Sierra on it (in fact the 2019 MacBook Air cannot run anything older than 10.14.5).