They were looking into force press buttons a while back so I would imagine a ‘solid state’ version is not too far off.
The spot on the crown is a 'touch button' for the ECG function. They *could* do that with all of the buttons, but I imagine it would drive people insane. I had a bike computer with a rather sensitive touch screen, and in perfect conditions, it worked really quite well. Mix sweat, rain, spit, mud, blazing sunshine into it and it all went sideways. Selecting functions, pausing rides, or just being totally unreachable. Most frustrating thing I had ever used. I ended up getting a 'screen protector' that also 'numbed out the touch screen', and it worked far better. The next version went back to actual buttons. Too funny. They also sold a 'sports watch', which in that day was a 'running watch', and they made the aluminum bezel ring touch sensitive. Most useless piece of sports tech I ever owned. It was a gift, and I was tempted to give it back. Touch screens, and 'magic buttons' don't tend to play well in the real world. The ECG thing works because it's pretty protected. Maybe touch buttons would work well as the side is rather protected. And the current AW touch screen seems to work very well. Please don't try to 'improve it', Apple...