If it becomes a market standard (due to ancillary revenues, reselling user data, etc), then the only choice consumers will have left are: (a) TV with ads or (b) no TV. "Voting with your wallet" has so many failure cases.

"That would never happen!"

Try buying a new car without touchscreen controls or software that controls the engine. It's still possible, but harder every year.

There is definitely a portion of the market that wants physical knobs, but one-size-fits-all is cheaper to make. Still, this seems like user segmentation that could present a commercial advantage, so I can't really explain this trend.

Related: Physical button on an Audi exists solely to upsell you on a software feature: https://www.thedrive.com/news/44967/audi-owner-finds-basic-h...

Welcome to the future.