The driver has buttons for everything, the touchscreen is mostly for the passenger. There are no buttons added and removed between the touchscreen and not-touchscreen version.
This was not my impression at all while cross-shopping the S-class, A8 and 7er. They’re all on fairly equal footing, I went with the 7 because it was put together significantly better than the Audi and had better tech than the S-class.
Now the brand new S-class might have shifted that balance a bit by adding rear wheel steering, but I’m not too sure about the touch screen monstrosity.