There are so many challenges to what you're outlining.
You are acting as though screens are difficult to replace. I would actually argue there are far fewer manufacturers making a physical sweep dial and it's components than there are screens.
You are acting like future buyers will have the nostalgia for physical dials and buttons. I can tell you they don't.
There is not going to be an "apple of the automobile world" because cars are a much heavier investment than either a personal computer or an iPhone. Which ...is really what Steve Jobs came back and fixed.. not the PC. He did this by pushing newer features never conceived to belong to the phone segment.
For a car, it would be like selling a car where being a mode of transportation is the least important thing about it. That actually, it should be where you work, and where you sleep, and work out. It can't be big and bulky like over landing Mercedes, those are dorky, it needs to be very small and sexy. You can see it just doesn't make sense.
Also, Apple is the way they are today because they have incredibly high margins on products they sell in the millions and millions of units. They are late to market with features, not especially innovative (today), and over charge on simple accessories that only offer branding as their value proposition (don't out perform competitors at even lower price points). At best what they offer is "it just works" inside their ecosystem.
But that's all aside.
The direct to consumer sales model won't happen due to incredibly strong lobbying by dealership networks. Small "show and tell" locations like Tesla or Rivian have (which is exactly what you are describing) have thus far been an EV only thing. But honestly you still end up very challenged when it comes to repairs. Because they really can't afford to put repair centers everywhere and at least with the Tesla model repairs take forever because of part unavailability.
The EV play is honestly the only one they have if Lotus is going to pull out of motorsport and not be their reason for success and development. EV is the only way they'll attract investors, it's the only place they can make an impression on non-sports car market.
Screens right now aren't difficult to replace because it's relatively new in cars, but screen technology and the chips that drive them change rather often. Of course there are more manufacturers making screens; it's the big thing right now. Dials and buttons can be repaired, or replaced. Screens cannot, especially 20 years from now, not to mention whatever chips and software was used to control them. I wasn't referring to nostalgia, I was talking about simple functionality with a usable lifespan and future repairability.
Steve came back to fix the personal computer (iMac); there wasn't an iPhone or iPod or App store or even a physical store at that time. He developed those later. His first effort beyond the iMac was to build Apple stores to provide the kind of customer experience and service that didn't exist at that time. Next was the iPod, then the iTunes store, then the App store, then the iPhone. Yes cars are a much heavier investment, which is why the current business model of building out tons of cars and leaving them sit on dealer's lots in hopes that somebody will buy them is failing. That needs to change.
No, it would be like selling a car that the customer wants, and supporting it the way the customer needs. Apple is the way it is today because they delivered what the customer wanted, and supported them the way they needed. Yes they have volume, which is precisely my point as to why Lotus should look at what Apple did and learn from it. They're successful because they don't rush to be first to the market; they wait until they can provide a better version, and that's one of the reasons why they're successful. There's more in their "simple accessories" than people realize, which is why they sell for more. If Apple was just the standard misconception you presented, they wouldn't be the success they are today. There's more to them than you clearly realize.
In the case of Lotus, they hardly have much of a dealership network to worry about. That's part of their struggle. They can easily make whatever few dealerships they have be one of these show and tell locations, which of course are also service centers. By removing the excessive financial burden of vehicle inventory off the backs of the dealers, the dealerships can be more profitable because they can handle the services where they make the most money anyways.
The EV dream was badly mis-judged, and the entire industry is paying the price. Too much of a change, too ill-conceived, too soon. My proposal of depots (not the show and tell locations) would help to cut down the cost of warranty repairs, by catching as many of those issues at the depots before they make it out to the customer. These depots would be staffed by factory trained techs, with full communication and telemetry to the factory, so they can find, diagnose and troubleshoot issues and implement the corrections at the depots. This would also eliminate the "let's try this and see what happens" method of repair you see at dealerships who have no idea what the problem really is, or how to fix it. All of that is charged back to the manufacturer, much of it being completely unnecessary.
The business model as-is needs to change; it's not working very well for anybody. Lotus is actually in an interestingly good position to be the one to lead on this, since they DON'T have a huge dealer network to deal with.
