It's related to the chip shortage, they are rationing what's available. Here's an article:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/b...chip-shortage/
My main problem is that only a few thousand of these cars will have no touchscreen, but these cars will require a special software update which will make them a minority.
In the future, this will 1) potentially cause issues with updates and other functionality breaking - not sure how much BMW will care as they are making us sign a form and 2) resale or trade-in value will suffer as this is a Covid car.
On top of this, if you are paying $75K+ for a car, I would expect every feature I paid towards.
The one thing that would make all of this understandable and acceptable is if BMW offered a future retrofit, not $500 which is a slap in the face.