Cost is definitely a part of the definition of simplicity in board design; so is ease of development. So yes, it does feel perverse but just sticking a microcon

Cost is definitely a part of the definition of simplicity in board design; so is ease of development. So yes, it does feel perverse but just sticking a microcontroller in it is often the simplest solution to a low-speed digital problem. Somebody had to design that microcontroller and it probably has a bunch of errata that basically say a quarter of it doesn’t work, but that’s already done and they are not that much more expensive (if at all) than a 555 timer. It probably isn’t even losing on power consumption. Simplicity is weird.