@Dan D. I think you're onto something here. Don't know if Tesla was thinking the same way, but to me the yoke and buttons go hand-in-hand. BOTH desperately call for an extremely quick steering ratio so that you never need to shuffle steer, and THAT is where Tesla failed the most here.
The Model 3 has very quick steering for a street car, about 10:1 from what I've read, and it feels that quick especially with the nice small steering wheel. When I first heard about the yoke on the new S I figured awesome, Tesla must have given it REALLY QUICK steering to do a yoke right, they already showed they're not afraid of quick steering (with the Model 3), I bet the yoke is like 6:1 or something (and maybe progressive off-center).
Then I learned it's 14:1 and I saw the videos, and I realized the yoke is a gimmicky joke and unsuitable for much of the driving I do. Looks great for the highway, and tolerable for wide suburban roads, but terrible for anything else.
Could I palm every tight turn with power steering? Sure I could. I could go get a commercial license and drive a bus too, if I wanted to go slow around turns and steer with my palm. At least I'd get paid for it then.
No car is perfect or even close to it, but the S yoke is a fatal flaw to me, I won't upgrade my S to a new one until I'm confident in an aftermarket solution to get a normal wheel...or maybe to get a crazy fast steering ratio instead.
And I really like the new S, yoke aside. In the meantime I'm enjoying the quick steering on the M3P...tearing up twisty back roads is a joy, counter-steering is a breeze, etc. I know the S is too big to ever feel quite as nimble as a 3 but there's no reason it has to be crippled with a slow ratio yoke.