That's the point of touchscreens I think.

Being able to offer users a myriad of config options without the need for tons of knobs.

Not saying I like it, but a lot of people seem to.

I guess the ideal setup would be knobs for essential stuff like volume, AC, etc, and then a touchscreen for the rest of the stuff.

Or just have six dedicated buttons for “everything else”:

  BACK |       UP        | ENTER
   /   | LEFT ---- RIGHT |   /
  EXIT |      DOWN       | MENU

Mazda and BMW have had something like this in some of their cars for years now. It's been a pleasant experience in the few cars I've used that had that kind of setup.

Here's how that works in a VW for calling back the last person who called you: right-right-right-ok-down-ok-down-down-ok-down-ok-ok. Not exactly what I'd call "pleasant experience". And you must look at the screen for the procedure, luckily they have a small screen for this in the middle of the instruments.

Mazda did better: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...

The central Commander can be tilted up/down/left/right and pushed. Also if my memory is not cheating, it has a capacitive touch surface.

The Mini has a dedicated button to switch instrument panel colours. Or at least, older models did.

You want a dial to “change the backlight color for the instrument cluster”??

It could go right next to the dial that changes the instrument panel's backlight brightness

You might be joking now, but:

https://www.ebay.com/p/20004588697

I drove a 40+ year old car for a while and it had one of these. Great feature, except that in old cars they always need to be at max these days due to all the street lights, etc.

Now it's been replaced with headlight moving knob in newer cars, which is more awesome.

My panel brightness knob is also the button that resets the trip meter.

No, I think it’s a silly feature. But if someone decides it must be there, then I want it to be a physical thing, such as a dial