Touch screens should not be used for any controls needed to operate a car. You can’t use them without taking your eyes off the road.

No one ever requested screens instead of buttons. It’s probably some BS some CEO came up with and forced the engineers to implement.

Not sure how related this is but in my field, designing industrial control systems, each seperate physical button is about $100 added to the cost over a touchscreen. We call touchscreens HMIs just to be special and sound smart. I imagine the numbers are very similar for cars but I don’t have data to back that up.