If this had been an ad demonstrating the "sportiness" of the srx then sure. But it wasn't.
It was advertising the SRX. This is one feature of an SRX that might appeal to some people. Without having seen the ad myself (do you have a link?), it seems to be saying that you can use it as a luxury crossover but also have some degree of driver involvement. It's just trying to pitch the vehicle to multiple markets at once. Nothing special if you ask me; every manufacturer does it. I really don't understand why you were annoyed by it.
You spent time in the CTS "sports sedan" in manumatic mode but I would bet you that most people would just put it in drive and go somewhere.
The same could be said of the GTI or
any other vehicle with flappy paddles or other methods of manumatic shifting (short of an EVO MR or an F430). Most people who buy a vehicle with flappy paddles or manumatic sticks never use them, yet companies advertise them, because some people want them and others just like to have the option for the rare occasions they do use it.
Companies advertise the max towing rating of a truck, even though few people tow 100% of the towing rating. Companies advertise 0-60 times even though few owners ever do hard launches. In short, companies (all car companies) advertise what a car CAN do, not what most people do every day, which is drive to the grocery store and work at 20% throttle in stop-and-go traffic.
