I still think it's a buyer demographic design. The market for the six figure S-Class expects the wood and trim.

Here's the BMW 7 Series



The Porsche Panamera




When I test drove the Tesla Model S, I found the iPad sized display, mounted low in the center stack, quite a bit more distracting in terms of shifting line of sight from the road, and for the price, the big open area under the display and between the seats seemed to scream "budget box."