If he needs to touch it, then the information he needs is obviously not where he needs it. Pilots used to fly "by the seat of their pants" using nothing but outside vision, a compass and maybe a map. Modern flight should be no different if the plane can provide that information in a 'clear sky' type of display. Sure, the engineer needs to know the condition of all the plane's systems, the pilot only needs to direct the plane's flight and handle the controls in an emergency.

As you say, most of those functions can be autonomous and automatic; it's up to the designers to make them so. The designers, however, need to listen to the pilots as to what data is really needed where.