Yeah, it's still best in class I think; I just bought a new Mazda and did some comparison test driving, and although I'm not as happy with it as the 2016 offering, the 2021 design is still great.
I think this is aesthetically better, but they turned the fan speed and vent settings into push buttons instead of dials. Whereas before I could set this without looking, now I often have to look to verify my settings. So in that sense, I wasn't happy about that change.
Your preferred model is the one in my CX5, I selected a lower trim level especially for those knobs! It also gave me a good reason to spend a weekend with my dad to sound proof the car and upgrade the audio.
This is the 2016 climate control cluster I preferred: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1225/1056/products/317144_...
What was nice about it was the three dials for all controls.
This is what they have now:
https://cars.usnews.com/pics/size/776x517/images/Auto/izmo/i...
I think this is aesthetically better, but they turned the fan speed and vent settings into push buttons instead of dials. Whereas before I could set this without looking, now I often have to look to verify my settings. So in that sense, I wasn't happy about that change.