The button I use the most on my Microwave is "add 30 seconds", I use it for almost everything, hitting it repeatedly to get more than 30 seconds.

I rarely want more than a few minutes of heating time, and I rarely need more than 30 seconds of granularity so that one button handles most of my microwaving needs.

Though I agree that dials would be better -- I wish cars weren't moving toward touchscreens, in my old car I could adjust pretty much everything in the car - radio, climate control, etc without looking. In my current car, there's a touch screen for pretty much everything except radio volume which is on the steering wheel.