Well nowadays tough screen controls have no affordances, it's not even clear what areas can be pressed, much less what actions it will engage.

>The labels are mostly just one word, so not very helpful. That conference button, what does it do? Will it ask me to type in the phone numbers of to-be-invited participants?

How would a touch screen change that?

>Also the buttons are not context sensitive. Ideally they should disappear when you can't press them.

Ok, so you enter a menu and now you have a "conference" button displayed, but you still have no idea what it does. I think touch screens are useful for actions that require a lot of interaction like entering navigation, but removing physical controls for basic inputs like volume knob or HVAC controls is an obnoxious anti-pattern, especially Tesla moving the wiper controls to a menu. Dirty windshields and worn out wipers are enough to make auto-sensing wipers act inconsistently. Removing the physical controls from them is a stupid fashion choice, much like Jony Ive screwing up the MacBook pro over the last decade in the name of design.