The things you seem to think are making cars more expensive, are actually the cost-cutting measures.

The screen is cheaper than a myriad of buttons. Which is literally why Ferrari hired Apple's Jony Ive to design their upcoming EV's interior... with physical controls (it'll still have a screen, but the important features have buttons and knobs and shit and they'll be made of metal and/or glass). To stand out from the crowd, as even premium manufacturers are using cheapo touchscreens instead of making proper interiors anymore.

As for "completely manual", if you mean manual transmission, those are gone because of low demand and the fact that it just costs more to support multiple options. Plus modern autos can actually be incredible. If you actually listen to the transmission manufacturer NOT the car manufacturer for maintenance schedules, they last longer than the clutch tends to do on most manuals and while a clutch job is easier than an auto trans rebuild, it's still not easy. Either one is going to total a 20 year old car for most people (not you or me if we work on our own cars, of course). Oh and automatic transmissions are now more fuel efficient than mediocre drivers with manual transmissions (not necessarily as fuel efficient as great drivers with manual transmissions though).

Anyway, screens themselves aren't bad. The best car I ever owned was (admittedly not under 30k new, but under 30k when I got it used) a 2019 Mercedes C-Class which had a nice screen with Apple Carplay and Android Auto support, but NO touch. There were physical buttons for everything you'd generally want, and you could control the screen with either the rotary knob, the touchpad in front of the armrest, or the steering wheel buttons. But you literally could NOT finger the screen itself to do anything. They changed that with the next generation a few years later, unfortunately. But for me this was perfect because I had a way to control navigation and the music on my phone that did not involve looking at my phone, or interacting with a touch screen.

In fact I don't think any of these features are what makes cars more expensive compared to 20-30 years ago. Screens are cheap now. Automatic everything has been figured out already, the R&D costs for most things already recuperated. It's the size creep if anything. They'll sell exclusively crossovers and SUVs because these are "premium" and margins are better. And even "small" cars, if they still exist, are bigger than the same model used to be. Oh and let's not forget that if you're in the US, everything needs to have like 500 horsepower now, while emissions and fuel efficiency goals dictate smaller engines, so everything HAS to have a turbo now.

In Europe, cheap cars still exist, though they've doubled in price over the last 2 decades (but what hasn't). You CAN still get a Dacia Sandero for 15k. It's so bare bones that to inflate the list of installed equipment, they list things like "fuel tank cap" and "front seat belts" among others. Even that comes with a 10" touch screen as standard because it's just so cheap to add one and it's much easier for them to design than a classic head unit with buttons.