That though crossed my mind as I was doing this too. The point of contact where you actually touch the car is such an important thing, and is much underestimated in my view. Audi do a great job of this, even in their older cars. Merc possibly the best at it since the 60s. But our new Mazda 6 wagon has blown me away with its interior. A base model car with proper stitched leather trim on the doors and dash pad. 10 different textures in the cabin makes it a classy place to sit.
And you're spot on Audax, the 9-3 interior is very Placky, and at times irritatingly quite Tacky. Why DID they do this? My only logical reason that I can come up with, is a feature that I call 'scrub-ability'.
You can scrub anything off the trim in a 9-3, particularly with an Enjo cloth, and it is new again. Crazy.
But this uber practicality came at a price. A serious lack of texture and feel.
So, the challenge now is to steadily improve the interior of the cabin to make the 9-3 a nicer place to be.