I'm thinking some manufacturers might be catching on to the downsides of touchscreen controls. I did a test drive of the previous generation Honda Civic, and it had touchscreen climate controls. I wound up getting a 2022 Honda Civic which has physical dials for all climate controls.
Though, as an aside, dials for temperature and fan speed are fine, but they also use a dial for changing which vents the air comes out of, which makes no sense. Also, the dials rotate infinitely, even though the ranges are finite. It means I still have to look to see what the setting is at, instead of being able to tell by feel.
That's actually not a bad suggestion! I'd miss being able to snap the occasional photo, but I could always carry my old iPhone if I anticipate the need for that.
I'd pay decent money for a 4 inch phone as well. I've been in the Apple ecosystem for years but decided to search for a current Android phone that's around that size, but couldn't find anything decent.
But I agree that by objective standards, it's unacceptable.