Not sure how related this is but in my field, designing industrial control systems, each seperate physical button is about $100 added to the cost over a touchscreen. We call touchscreens HMIs just to be special and sound smart. I imagine the numbers are very similar for cars but I don’t have data to back that up.

It sucks I know. Happened to me twice. If it helps any it probably wasn’t the people you worked with, it was a financial “engineer” who did this.

I have done it both ways. Stuck in out thru layoffs and jumped ship when they happened. Generally, if you can, I think jumping ship is better.