Can we make the steering wheel a touch screen too? Like a digital wheel you turn with your finger to steer the car. Wouldn't that be just super duper? Couldn't possibly go wrong.
The newer VW models (Golf, ID series, etc.) had touch controls on the steering wheels instead of physical buttons. Of course what happened is what you anticipated. Bad customer feedback made them reverse that for future models.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tesla+yoke+steering+wheel+controls...
The less used something is, the more apparent it must be how to use it.
If something is used once a year, most users won't know what myriad of menus to follow. Some won't even know it is a menu option, and may hunt all over the car for a hidden release.
That said, the hood release has been on the driver side somewhere, under the dash, in every car I own.
With a physical release, you can often hunt for a thing, much faster than a dozen submenus.