My induction hob comes with physical handles, and so does washing machine. And for them, it doesn’t make sense to do otherwise - wet fingers don’t go well with sensors, and I don’t know who came up with that terrible idea.

For the smartphone, though, touch controls allow for the precision and speed of input unmatched by any other input method. They also allow to maximize the screen space on a very small device, allowing better interfaces and reducing eye strain.

The quality of an OS and the developer incentives are different matters entirely, though.