Ever since mouses and GUIs were invented it was common knowledge that "ordinary" users don't bother to learn keyboard shortcuts.
That common knowledge is wrong, but it comes from an important truth: brand new users who are not yet committed to your product will get frustrated if the thing they need to do is hidden away as a key-binding or command-line command.
So successful products optimise for the UX of a user who doesn't yet know how to use the product well. And such users really love touchscreens.
> Touchscreens, which are ideal for representing multiple user unterfaces
I am no expert on this, but from talking to people in the aviation industry I noticed slow a trend away from the cockpit-with-2,000 controls and towards using computer screens which switch between display multiple things. Or rather, there still are 2,000 controls, but thanks to the computer-screens, the number hasn't blown up to 200,000.
So my guess is the touchscreens in these ships replaced some computer screen where input (and mode switching) had been done by physical buttons. And now they are moving it back.
I suspect the market does not lie though, and if you are pedaling broken stuff t to middle-managers, it's best to not explain a damn thing.