Every microwave I have ever owned have been under $30, purely because I didn't want to go digital. Analogue egg-timer knob - good enough accuracy, and instantly pliable
If you open the door there are a few more buttons for setting power levels and a timer, and the only useful preset button (popcorn), but none of the useless ones.
This LG NeoChef model: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/microwave-ovens/lg-LMC1575BD
This is just another example of the brain-dead designers and coders running around ruining the world.
It sounds extreme to say, but I suspect quite a few of them have blood and misery on their hands, because some poorly designed control cascaded in effect and caused a catastrophe elsewhere. It's easier to imagine with medical equipment than microwaves, but its still putting someone's desire to write fancy control algorithms over a simpler more effective design.
Start out by punching any jackass insisting everything be digital, you will go a long way to solving the problem of bad designers.
https://www.fisherpaykel.com/au/cooking/ovens/contemporary-o...
My parents bought a new microwave with all kinds of fancy digital features that nobody uses 99% of the time. In addition to being really difficult to use, it also makes a very loud BEEEP on every button press. Insanity.
I got a new microwave recently. It beeped on every button press, 5 beeps after a cook cycle, no way to mute (yeah, I checked). Within a day of owning it I took it apart and ripped the beeper off the board. Problem solved.
Another great feature is that it doesn’t have a rotating platform, I have square plates so that’s also super convenient.
I get buying a simple microwave if that’s all you need it to do, but don’t dismiss the models with more bells and whistles, they have their place as well.
Saved (fallible) me from a lot of cold meals.
My current microwave doesn't have that and in ascending order of silliness I have 1) forgotten food and eaten it cold 2) gotten hungry and gone to heat up something only to find there was something already in the microwave 3) (worst) opened the microwave to find something there from the night before.
But the UI is utterly absurd. The default presentation is to select timer or cook. Who uses a timer anywhere nearly as much as the cook function? It is like a car always first asking if you'd rather drive or pop the hood.
One more button press has never been enough to annoy me anywhere nearly enough to replace it. But I wonder how many times I've pressed it.