I think iDrive was initially lamented because it was such a radical departure from how car settings were controlled but with the features that cars started to have back in the early '00s it made sense to have that sort of a UI for many settings, particularly those that are touched infrequently or even just once. BMW at least kept physical controls for HVAC, heated seats, etc. I've owned cars with three generations of iDrive and it certainly improved a lot over the years but even the older version in my 3-series is pretty good. It's primarily used to switch between Bluetooth audio and the radio and it's infinitely better to have a physical controller over a touchscreen.