[talliedthoughts]

Another possible reason for not having physical buttons is waterproofing. There would need to be a small gap between the button and the hob surface, and water or cooking oil could get in there, causing issues with the electronics, in addition to making it harder to clean.

[cassepipe]

This is actually a very easy problem to solve with minimal design : Just find a way to isolate the knobs from the main cooking area. Like this but with induction : https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gas+hob+&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=imag...

[elric]

How common was water damage to hobs before physical buttons were removed? I'm guessing not very. Maybe there's a bit of cost saving involved when manufactoring hobs without buttons. But I'd much rather pay a couple of extra currency units and get something that's user friendly.

[KineticLensman]

> How common was water damage to hobs before physical buttons were removed? I'm guessing not very.

I think this is correct - not much damage. I used gas hobs for decades with various types of buttons and knobs. With appropriate recesses, washers, etc not much spilt water got past them, but the resultant complex surfaces were difficult to clean.

[bserge]

I liked hardware buttons hidden beneath a polymer layer (to simulate the look of touch buttons). Easy to use, clean and waterproof. The downside was that the plastic layer sometimes came off after a few years on cheap appliances and needed re-gluing. Better than a failed touch panel, though.