its better than what was there, everything is plug and play out of the box start to finish. In my older days with less money I'd spend the time cheaping around finding all the work arounds. Now I just want to open the box and install it and have everything ready to go.
The soft touch buttons aren't that bad, most of the time I'm just tapping the volume up or down on the wheel rocking out with pandora. Sound quality is far beyond what was there. Most everyone knocking the head units doesn't even have the amps, speakers, or sound deadening to have a leg to stand on. Hell it covers up my obnoxious exhaust and is enough to shake the mirrors.
As for carplay/android, Have it on the escalade, not all that wild about it, might as well pick up the phone vs dicking around poking at the dashboard.
and on the topic of retro audio, I still ahve the junk I pulled from the tahoe from 2002. The alpine CVA 1006 flip up monitor, 6 dvd changer, dvd based nav, surround sound processor run on optical. And my 3 old school super conservatively rated kicker amps (the ones you can link into a 50 something inch wide monstrosity and make people scratch their head when they lift the rear seat) Gave my buddy the original 12 inch L7 and the kicker made demo box, never was impressed with the squares. Have a round 12 in my C5 vette, and had two 10's in my 92 Z28......the two 10 solobarics sounded better and hit harder than the 3 10w6's that replaced. them on the same 800 wat RF punch amp, before they sold out too.
Now you can buy one unit that drops right in, no stand alone brains, ridiculous harnesses, a tiny ass amp and it sounds better than the old stuff. Of course the 15 year old Focal Poly Kevlars that were like 350 for 6.5 2 ways still sound sweet, albeit a lil harsh with titanium vs silk tweets.