My 2001 Prius has a touch screen. I think Lexus puts a control device there just so they can say they have one like BMW and Audi otherwise cross shoppers get confused. They'll use it as a reason not to consider it. I've always found the idea stupid. Everything should be on the steering wheel anyway. I want to see the first person to crash or get ticketed for trying to initiate a buggy gesture control.

Buying luxury cars is almost like an IQ test for the rich. You bought a BMW without manual door locks that traps people inside and suffocates them? Your Tesla has automated door handles that crush your fingers? Your MB wipers keep breaking because they make four independent movements on each wipe to catch that last centimeter of windshield surface in the corner?
 

That's the problem Lexus was trying to "solve" I think when they came up with Remote Touch a few years ago. Touch screens have become associated with cheap mainstream cars because they are the easiest to implement, you can just shove a radio with a touch screen in a double DIN hole and you're done. It's also a problem if your luxury UI is too similar to your mainstream UI - see "MyLincolnTouch" which is MFT with the word "Ford" crossed out...which isn't too far off from what a Lincoln is in general.

So in order to not have your ES350 not look too much like a Camry LE, you have to come up with some kind of Rube Goldberg device to avoid being able to touch anything, and some of these are definitely better than others.

Non mechanical door pulls are stupid in all circumstances, and the results can definitely be tragic.

http://q13fox.com/2015/06/10/elderly-man-dog-die-because-car-doors-wouldnt-unlock/