User blog comment:DaNASCAT/Technical Update: June 12, 2017/@comment-25529993-20170616055517/@comment-20644-20170618235941

I don't really see the need for the button at all, to be honest. Talk pages are used by editors, who will discover that it's in the Edit dropdown. The button doesn't need to be added for everyone, since the vast majority of visitors to your wiki will never use it.

Why not offer it as personal customization? That way, users who are fine with the white space and who feel that the button is useful to them can choose to use it.