Mazda makes cars that are aimed at maximizing performance/comfort/usability/etc for the driver and nobody else in the car. With this in mind it makes sense to

Mazda makes cars that are aimed at maximizing performance/comfort/usability/etc for the driver and nobody else in the car. With this in mind it makes sense to not have a touch screen, but what happens when the front seat passenger is controlling the music? It's not a great setup if you tend to have multiple people in your car often. If most of the time you're a solo driver (perhaps like Uber?) then Mazda's focus on building everything with driver in mind makes sense.