This doesn't really ring true for me. I agree that when people buy cars, they are often not just buying for themselves. But the purchase decision is not usually made without input from the other drivers. Well, a purchaser will probably discuss things with their spouse, and ask if they care about particular features. But in the case of someone buying a car for their kid, it's usually "they'll get what they get, and they'll like it".

It's true for some features (the wife (and I, to be fair) were pretty strongly on the "heated seats" side of things) but things like infotainment were not dealbreakers if everything else lined up.

But CarPlay is darn close; I'd not say I'd never buy a car without it but having it means I don't need to worry if the infotainment setup is crap or not, because I won't be using it.