How is a button press significantly better than pulling on a wire? Can you explain how it makes a difference to the person riding on the bus?

I think the answer to this is the same as what leads to terrible things like internet-connected microwaves. Techification for the sake of it because we can, not because it's a good idea.

It's a push button. We've "technified" our homes with light switches 150 years ago. The roof hasn't fallen down, I'm fairly sure a lowly bus can handle buttons.

I'm European. A wire looks archaic :-)

Hardly the kind of thing I was expecting in SF. Same for BART, looks like something straight out of the 70s. Or those huge concrete slabs cut with saws, used for sidewalks. In Europe they generally use asphalt.

American infrastructure generally lacks... panache, style, IMHO.