There were no buttons on the steering wheel? Which model?
>you even use the touch screen to change gears.
Wow, really wondering now which Tesla model did you drive, where you had to change gears?
I'm not sure when you would use neutral but I suppose in a service situation, something pretty unusual and again on the vast majority of Teslas, whether you count by the number of models or the number of individual shipped cars, that's also done with a physical stalk so the touch screen is really a non-issue here. Yes, shifting into neutral is done with the physical stalk. As is reverse and drive.
But perception matters. I think Tesla should do a better job educating the public about their cars, because people form all sorts of opinions and then it's hard to even have a conversation because the baseline knowledge about what is going on has to be totally reset. Even people who drive a Tesla once come away mistakenly thinking it has no buttons (!!), which is so far from the truth it's hard to fathom what phenomenon we are witnessing here.