Comment by recursivedoubts

i think physical sliders are aesthetically fairly ugly (although two vertical sliders on either side of the control cluster could look good)

they also make it difficult to support an "auto" function, because they would need to move automatically to maintain a consistent user experience

sliders aren't used very often in cars now so it is probably harder to find well made components for them

etc

hopefully as the automakers move back to physical inputs they bring back these sorts of controls