They were talking about the device from the article, when a non-wired remote was a new and neat idea. Also, standardized, long-lasting batteries may not have been as common as we’re used to these days.

That’s the world where the original engineers decided not to go with an electronic device, so they didn’t have customers buying the bleeding edge tech and thinking it had bricked a couple of months after purchase because “did you change the battery?” wasn’t a consideration they were used to yet