physical buttons are extremely important because the driver can activate a setting without taking their eyes off the road. Its really a safety thing. You don't want to take your eyes off the road for more than 1 second to do something, The worst thing is to have more than two button/steps do to a common, basic function. Honda Accord did the same thing, got rid of ALL their buttons for the radio. Their users rebelled so buttons came back.
The overall large price increases for a base truck have come from them flip-flopping standard powertrains yearly and then the optional powertrain is a $2-3k addition. Then the next year, they make the old optional powertrain the standard (at the same or similar price it was last year) and then the old standard powertrain from last year is now an upcharge as an option which is effectively a double price increase on that powertrain.
@Sarah Davis: on the tailgate handle there's a small bump on the left that looks like a small nub that could be a small map light. What the heck is it ???
Usually it locks out about 2 weeks prior to your production date. If you add the tonneau cover it could change your production date, pushing you back. I've seen that happen before.