Fine china and greasy steel pans both get washed by hand at my house. Neither are used often enough for this to be a problem. Only "normal" stuff goes in the dishwasher, so it only needs a "normal" button.

No I'd honestly be happy with throwing out whatever didn't manage the single program just like I don't care about special cold/30C wash clothes -- everything manages a 40C wash, at least once.

I assume enough people don't have fine china just like most don't want to "auto cook 1.5kgs of chicken" using a special microwave program, so really there should be a market for really simple appliances in this case too.

Edit: I realize there is an environmental aspect here but tbh the machine should be able to tell how dirty the stuff is.

So you now have me reconsidering whether setting the thing on "heavy" and hitting start every time is the wrong way to do it then...

It would need 2 buttons, 3 at most. Auto and gentle, and you could argue that a button for a hot thorough cycle is needed as well, but with auto sensing I don't see the need.