I think the more generous, less arguable, and less conspiratorial reason would be that climate control and other car-related features have been integrated into one UI resulting in a net-better experience and quality finish.
I feel like it's a worse UI and worse experience. By leaps and bounds. Less reliable, harder to operate, over reliant on terrible software and underpowered hardware. Some of the android auto and apple car play stuff is acceptable, but not great.
The Tesla integrated climate/vehicle control/entertainment system is absolutely fine by Silicon Valley standards, far better than CarPlay and Android, and leaps and bounds better than other manufacturers' poor implementations of these features (integrated or not.)
You could make the argument that "physical buttons are safer," but that doesn't mean the UI that accompanied these buttons was that great.
Most vehicles pre-touchscreen had vehicle control functions on shitty jog wheels or arrow buttons on the steering wheel (maybe with a 7 segment display, maybe an LCD.)
