What's wrong with the center console with physical buttons? It's the same thing, except they never rearrange, and you get physical tactility.
>(current UI update aside)
One thing at least I'll never have to deal with is finding a brand new re-arranged center console in my Geo Metro the next morning!
>but I find I can glance at the speed/car status section of the screen more quickly than I can glance down at a set of dials in the traditional position, and weirdly the sidways/down glance seems to retain more peripheral vision of the windscreen/road than the downwards glance to the traditional location.
I think you just got used to it. Tesla adding a touch screen has not magically superseded the tens of millions of hours car designers put into interiors.