I don't know about full 3D manipulation, but we used buttons and switches and levers for decades. They worked great. They are easy to see, feel, and manipulate.

I don't know about full 3D manipulation, but we used buttons and switches and levers for decades. They worked great. They are easy to see, feel, and manipulate. They can't move or change, so muscle memory develops naturally. You can use them while not looking and with gloves on - essential when driving or operating other dangerous machinery. The natural constraints of them meant that they were ready to discover and learn. Over time we got better at packing more into a button. Multimodal buttons became a thing, and once alphanumeric displays become practical, a single knob or arrow keypad to scroll through tiny menus became common. Twenty years after that, everything is a flat, touch sensitive button, and more and more we hide them from even being visible until they are interacted with. I believe the reasons for this are two fold. First, they are futuristic. People are drawn to new, shiny things, even if they are functionally worse. The second is cost. Physical switches are quite expensive compared to digital electronics. As touchscreens have become cheaper, they have replaced more physical inputs. Similarly, they have replaced discrete indicator lights, meters, and other single purpose indicators. The cost savings is modest in terms of an entire product, but businesses will spend days saving one cent in production costs because it adds up over millions produced. It usually amounts to a small percentage of profits, but they'll chase anything.