Subaru infotainment is also very controlling. Want to use the keypad while you’re taking a phone call on the go? No, it won’t let you if the car is moving. You’ll need to use your phone’s UI. Other CarPlay cars don’t do this.
My 2017 Mazda with CarPlay does something similar. It truncates any lists (songs, podcast episodes, contacts, etc) that CarPlay displays to 10 items. All it does is incentivize folks to use their phone. It's incredibly annoying because the Mazda command dial for interacting with CarPlay is otherwise excellent and I don't think that limiting the list size does anything to reduce distraction.
I really like the dials some cars come with like BMWs. Subaru doesn’t have any dials at all unfortunately - just a touchscreen with really bad quality. The interface also often has buttons with very small size that make it hard to operate.
My subaru has a fairly mediocre touchscreen and interface but almost all of the things I actually use are manual controls. I usually turn the touchscreen off first thing when I get in the car (two button presses). My phone connects automatically for music and I either control through the phone or via dials (like for volume) or buttons (like for climate)
I find this restriction weird as well. I would like to not have my privacy violated by voice assistants. I just want the phone interface to be accessible through the car display and to be able to control it through a dial ideally.
On my VW I disabled this limitation with a VCDS coder. What's funny is that the flag was labeled 'nhtsa_limitation_switches_for_X' nhtsa as in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
