I've seen this a LOT lately, when did everyone forget what segments were?
My latest bought a couple years ago still has a 7-segment vacuum fluorescent display. And a digital encoder knob and buttons rather than membrane controls. And a "cyclonic" inverter, which from the marketing diagrams, you would think can bend reality to your whims.
I have both tools and they have completely different uses.
edit: both sport 7-segment digits though
Several of the greatest fortunes of modern capitalism have been made through surveillance of people that "are not that interesting"
Those were the best. Dead simple to operate. That said I still have the Goldstar microwave I bought over 30 years ago, which has a keypad and digital timer.
Our microwave has a fully graphic, monochrome LCD. And Wi-Fi. Of course. https://kalleboo.com/microblog/posts/109720164680381672.html
I got ratioed here, for some reason, so I guess I didn’t communicate properly. Most people here are nerds who might know what this is called but the average person doesn’t.
But that's probably not what the author was getting at :)