How many people have to die for aesthetics?

The main purpose of a handle is to open a door, not look polished. Looking polished is not helpful when you're dead because you couldn't get out of that car in an emergency . So IMHO it shouldn't be surprising that they're being banned.

Form over function is not the correct approach for designing something that can kill you if it doesn’t work when you need it to.

I'm convinced it isn't rocket science to design a flush handle that looks as clean yet has a manual operation fallback (preferably mechanical). Eg. Something like an integral hinge where you can push the short, base end in to pop the release (provided car is unlocked).

IMO their handles are stupidly over-engineered. It shows when you get problems like ice, etc. in northern climates.