Yeah, this is not the consensus among actual owners who voted with their money.
As a someone in their exact target demographic, the giant screen is one of the major features I've been stuck on. Articles like these only support the feelings I've had about their touchscreens.
I don't think current owners are the whole market Tesla is trying to reach.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/
Just because the UI isn't very driver-centric doesn't mean the car isn't awesome.
When you're not fiddling with the UI, you can accelerate faster than many porsches or vettes. Or if you're in bumper to bumper traffic, you can let the car drive.
Using your same analogy, this also means that I have chosen not to vote by not buying any of the luxury German of Japanese sedans. I've had both as daily drivers previously and I do not foresee myself going back. In fact, my wife and I were willing to take two depreciation hits to trade-in our relatively new MBenz sedan and SUV vehicles to go all Tesla.
Also, 99% of the functionality needed can already be controlled on the steering wheel buttons if you are so keen with that. Pretty much everything else is automatic. You are also not being forced to buy these cars, so why the vitriol?
I think the talk is less cheap when a person is saying that they WON'T buy something though. I'd contend that people are more likely to NOT buy something they say they won't buy than to buy something they say they will buy.
> Using your same analogy, this also means that I have chosen not to vote by not buying any of the luxury German of Japanese sedans.
I could have bought a Tesla but decided not to. There were many reasons but that screen was one of them.
> You are also not being forced to buy these cars, so why the vitriol?
Vitriol? All I said was I'm unhappy about the trend, wouldn't buy a car with it, and expressed that, in the likely vain hope that someone managing these companies is listening, because it's limiting my choice for future cars. Same as you're expressing your love for the design.
Also all the phoning-home is something I won't be a part of.
When my current car reaches EOL, I think I'll have trouble finding a newish car because of these horrible user-hostile trends.