Basic cars… Well, my first car was basic, a Vauxhall Viva 1275, MW radio with 2 speakers (No Cassette), Heated Rear Windscreen, manual aerial, choke, 2 keys and that was it. Do you really want to go back to those days?
A basic model nowadays has luxuries that many of us would never do without, Air Con, electric windows, DAB radio, fuel injection, fog lights, central locking, basic cruise control, Sat Nav, ABS etc!
To me and my disability, I would add leather seats (Ideally electric), Heated seats and lumbar support are a minimum level of spec that I look for, and ideally keyless entry and start.
I’d also add that many of these bells and whistles are huge safety features, the current trend now going down the automatic braking, lane-keeping, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance etc.
I do see some of where you’re coming from, the likes of ambient lighting and touch screens might seem to be unnecessary and to some confusing, but you just need to get used to it and use what you need, most systems have on/off buttons, and the old menu of having a huge list of add on, just makes cars more expensive to make on production lines, BMW are getting better at making cars with most of the basics as standard, but I remember when an Audi included 4 wheels and an engine and not much else. Look at Kia and Hyundai, you buy the model with a spec and the only option is colour, makes production simple.
Out of interest, what to you is the minimum spec of a new car in your world?