Some customization controls, such as the darkness of the bread, are valuable to me because I like slightly darker toast than my partner. (As others have pointed

Some customization controls, such as the darkness of the bread, are valuable to me because I like slightly darker toast than my partner. (As others have pointed out, note that this product does have a knob for that.) But all options have a cost so those I do not use have negative value. My current toaster oven has three dials and an LCD display with a hierarchical menu, the vast majority of which I have never intentionally used, though I don't mind all the bells and whistles because I have learned how to ignore them. But for toasting slices of bread my current toaster is less useful than one in the article despite the proliferation of options because it requires that I mentally estimate the amount of time to toast depending on the bread slice's thickness, composition, and current temperature (i.e. from counter, fridge, or freezer) so I can specify an appropriate amount of time to toast. Occasionally I slightly over- or under-toast something and then deal with correcting that. I agree that it is much more infuriating when controls I depend on are removed or shunted off into a car touchscreen menu or appliance-specific mobile app. But for the vast majority of appliances and applications I just want the thing to do the job I hired it to do with minimal questions or interruptions.