“I find all that stuff distracting and annoying”
AMEN to that. I can drive modern cars for years and a simple thing like raising or lowering the AC fan speed means I have to take my eyes off the road, scan and inspect the minuscule controls, decipher the cryptic pictograms, and then try to hit the right button with my fat fingers all the while the car is bouncing.
I think the pinnacle of auto user interface was our 1966 Pontiac Bonneville. All cars of that era had a few large knobs you could find by feel and you had tactile feedback telling you where the control was positioned. The Bonny had these HUGE air vents down by the floor on both the driver and passenger sides. You pulled a knob (that was attached to a wire cable) that opened and closed the air door. With it open, you had HUGE airflow through the cabin. There was nothing like it before or after.
Try renting a car at a big city airport, especially on a rainy night, as you try to:
A. Turn on the headlights
B. Turn on the wipers
C. Navigate out of the parking lot
d. And your phone just got a signal so NOW it tells you to make a U-turn because you just missed it coming out of the three floors below ground deck.
My parents bought a 1966 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, white with luggage rack, and took nine of us on a grand tour from coast to coast. The Vista Dome was great to have among the giant redwoods and canyon streets of the big cities. Almost 20 years later I bought my Father-in-Law's very low mileage 1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. He had only used it to tow his camping trailer to the mountains once a year. That was a true land yacht.
I remember those. I had a ‘66 Pontiac for a while, too.
I rent cars often when traveling for work and vacation so I've driven a lot of different makes. I find them intuitive enough to drive without having to stress out too much about where a particular control is located. I recently purchased a 2020 Outback with all the bells and whistles and the center display looks like somebody just stuck an extra large iPad in there and you have to swipe for this and swipe for that. The car in general probably has more electronics than the Space Shuttle. Even the parking brake is electronic. But that doesn't concern me much and I haven't had to consult my owner's manual once.
Funny story about the owner's manuals, which these days are about six inches thick and won't easily fit in your glove compartment. I sold my 2014 Nissan Murano with 140,000 miles on it and the new owner asked if I still had the manuals. I rummaged around for them and realized that there was an upper shelf in the glove compartment that held them. I pulled them out and there they were in pristine condition, with the business card of my 2014 Nissan salesperson neatly tucked into the little plastic insert. I had literally never touched the things in six years of ownership.
Basically when I have a question about my car, I just do a web search and the answer comes right up along with links to YouTube videos and such.