Probably not many explicitly, but I bet it contributes to a lot of shoppers thinking the appliance is "sleek" or "modern". Touch screens have been a big design fad in recent years and design fads sell products.

I'm hopeful that the tide is turning on these designs as more people have to use them day to day and realize that touchscreens are categorically worse than tactile controls in a number of scenarios.

Often times there’s simply no alternative. When we purchased our current stovetop we didn’t find any with non-touch controls.