Yep I can’t stand this disingenuous behavior. Really the trains should even be automated at this point. Chicago constantly has staffing issues so their service gets worse and worse and yet they insist on staying in the past.
In fact every time the train stops and there's a noticable pause before the door opens, that is caused by the operator having to move from the driving controls to the door controls.
Sure it’s rare. But what happens when it does happen, last thing you want is passengers self evaccing onto 3rd/4th rail energised tracks.
The major impact is at stations without level boarding where assistance which should be from the platform doesn’t arrive.
Click on "Show step-free accessibility", quite useful.
But it was built this way, there were no operators to lay off, and no unions to bargain with.