It's much more secure. Electric locks can be stronger and you can't jimmy them like you can mechanical locks. Plus it makes the dash look better and it's kind of cool.

People are coming up with all sorts of ridiculously contrived scenarios to make this look bad. But I haven't seen anything that's more than a 1 in a million type problem with an obvious solution.

Is it kind of dumb? IMHO yes. Are there people who like this sort of whiz bang gadgetry in their luxury cars? Absolutely.