It's very simple: what sells on the showroom floor and what works at home aren't necessarily the same thing.

not sure about that. How many people have bought an oven _because_ it had a touchscreen?

Probably not many explicitly, but I bet it contributes to a lot of shoppers thinking the appliance is "sleek" or "modern". Touch screens have been a big design fad in recent years and design fads sell products.

I'm hopeful that the tide is turning on these designs as more people have to use them day to day and realize that touchscreens are categorically worse than tactile controls in a number of scenarios.

Often times there’s simply no alternative. When we purchased our current stovetop we didn’t find any with non-touch controls.

i used to have one of those too. the only thing i liked about that that they were easy to clean.

Best believe they're optimized for maximal replacement sales.

Reminds me of some rental cars I had over the years (Buck being my favorite). I couldn't imagine anybody actually trying to drive the car before releasing. They were so bad.

I think they do, but too late and then it would be too expensive to go back and redesign the product.