BMW sometimes gives in to this temptation, e.g., they put in a system to do something usefull called "X" which, with a little tweak, could do "Y," so they add-in "Y" just because it seems "neat" and is cheap to add.

Case in point? The first gen Z4. It had electric steering assist, so it was easy to change the amount of assistance. As a result, they made the Sport button do three things: (1) make the electronic throttle more sensitive (or touchy, depending upon whether or not you liked it), (2) automatically put the auto transmission into Sport Mode, and (3) reduce the steering assistance boost.

Now, I drove both versions and frankly could never figure out why when you wanted to do some "sporty" driving, you would want the steering wheel to turn harder. It's not like with the design of the EPS you got any more feel or feedback with less boost, and it wasn't a variable boost with speed sensitivity or a variable ratio. No, it just turned harder.

I figure they did it simply because they could do it.