If it's added complexity for no fundamental improvement to the device then I'd agree it's bad. I find that avoiding buying devices with "smart" in the name eliminates most such designs... i'm starting to worry about the availability of dumb cars in the future though (consider that dumb cars are packed full of microelectronics and sensors that do a fantastic job of managing the engine, they work more independently, simply, almost mechanically compared to the "smart" bits).