With the widespread adoption of electronic shifting, the industry could offer riders something that disappeared when index-only mechanical shifting took over in the 1990s.
Prior to the coming of pod shifters for flat-bar and upright-handlebar bikes, and brifters for road, the indexed shifters in all categories were built around the shape and placement of friction shifters, and all -- or nearly all -- had the option to revert to friction if the indexing went out of adjustment on a ride when you couldn't stop to dial it back in. Just select the friction option and go back to the old way of feeling and listening to get the gear you want.
The mania for internally routing everything on all high performance bikes has made mechanical cable routing a nightmare. Electronic shifting is the only way that makes sense for a modern spaceship. Maybe that's less true on a mountain or gravel bike with a single chainring and less need for absolute precision shifting, but those categories could still benefit from electronic "friction" shifting.
Think about it: electronic shifting sends a signal to little motors that move the derailleur a set amount to achieve the indexed shifting that mechanical systems relied on perfect cable tension and perfect cable movement to provide. As cogs got closer together and cable routing followed more and more tortuous paths through the interior of the frame, formerly trivial amounts of drag could throw everything off. And cables will still fray and break inside the shifters themselves. Electronic shifting, especially fully wireless, moved all that to the ether. Calling rear derailleur, come in please. Do you read me?
It should be easy for an electronic system to incorporate a "friction" option that would allow for wheel substitutions, for instance, that wouldn't have to be exact. You could stuff an 11-speed wheel into a 12-speed system as long as your friggin' through-axle matches. Maybe the other parameters of the ultramodern spaceship make the kind of improvisations I'm imagining impossible. I just remember dealing with minor compatibility issues getting a wheel from neutral support during a race, and imagining something similar translated into the modern menu of compatibility issues. I guess if it would never matter to a sponsored professional it should never matter to an amateur technolemming. What is the industry's financial and competitive motive to bother with such a thing?
I haven't checked lately, because I don't own any of the crap, and no customer has needed me to mess with theirs lately, but the "friction" option may exist in the fine-tuners already built into the shifters as they are. Last time I had to mess with one from SRAM and Shimano respectively, it didn't seem like something you would want to do on the fly, especially every shift.
A true friction simulator would let the rider control the derailleur directly through its entire travel. Push the uppy control to go up and the downy control to go down. Stop where you want. Instead of fixed increments per push, just go until told to stop. Maybe it already exists. As I said, I have no personal interest, and have not had to develop a professional one as yet. And would a technolemming even put up with it? So much skill has been eliminated from the operation of the machine that several generations of riders have never experienced it.
A rider interested in durability, versatility, and longevity probably already gravitates away from the most spacy spaceships. Unfortunately, the industry kills its elderly and dishonors its ancestors as a matter of course, so top quality mechanical stuff is disappearing rapidly. At one time, Dura Ace STI was 8-speed mechanical. Now it's all electronic except for the last remaining barcons. And the barcons are index-only. If you have nightmare cable routing they offer no refuge. Index-only makes them picky eaters anyway. Thanks for nothing.
Electronic shifting brings with it the hassle of battery charging and eventual disposal. Old mechanical shifting cables have to be disposed of as well, but they can go in with the scrap metal to be made into something else. But if you're stuck on the modern way, electronic friction shifting might be a way to blend in some of the long-lost convenience of more primitive times.
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