I like old school BOL
Back in the day BOL didn't have as many options and features, but it was simple, and worked just as well as the TOL models, being just as well built. An older BOL washer might not have a delicates, knits, or perm press cycle, but it's one cycle and one water level did wash just as well as a TOL model, simply requiring human intervention for things like delicates, by letting it agitate a minute or so, shutting it off and letting g it soak, then letting it agitate a minute or so. Your other option was to continue hand washing g your delicates. For women who started out with a wringer washer, a BOL automatic made the transition far easier than a TOL model would have. And more affordable too.
BOL appliances were always popular in this area, partly due to a thrifty farm population, and partly because it was not unheard of for women in this area to still be cooking on nothing but a wood stove and using a wringer washer until the late 1970s, so they wanted the smallest learning curve possible with their new automatic appliances.
An electric stove with 1 knob per burner and one knob to control the oven didn't take too much figuring out, and was far simpler than stoking a fire and controlling a complicated system of dampers on a wood cooking stove. But a TOL model with a burner size selector knob and burner with a brain, 2 oven knobs with multiple oven functions, griddle option, etc etc, would have taken days to figure out, and seemed just as complicated as their old wood stove.
Same for a washer, one knob, one water level, same temperature for every load unless changed at the knobs for those special loads, was far simpler than filling a wringer, monitoring the wash time, wringing the clothes, rinsing, etc. TOL with temperature selection, speed selection, load size selection, and 4 plus cycle options on the timer, not to mention a plethora of dispensers and a filter to remember, would have been mind boggling to figure out and seemed troublesome to adjust all those switches and knobs for each and every load.
Dryer? Timed dry, one temperature, easy. Auto dry, multiple temperatures, etc, it's easier to just carry them to the clothesline.
Dishwasher? One knob wonder, fill it up, put in detergent, turn it on, dishes are clean and done. Multiple cycles for various soil levels, heat options, dry options, etc? Too confusing, too much trouble, by the time I figure all that out I could be putting the last hand washed dish in the drainer and wiping out the sink.
I say all this, because I have known a few women whose husband's or children insisted on getting them TOL appliances as their first ones, and these tended to be the women who clung kicking and screaming to their old ways, leaving that TOL dryer under a plastic tablecloth in the basement while they used the clothesline still, using the wringer washer because it did a better job than their TOL Kenmore automatic, using the wood stove because the food tasted better than anything cooked on that electric thing that always burns cakes, and doing dishes by hand because they could do it faster and do a better job than that fancy machine with all it's buttons. If these same women had been given basic BOL appliances, they would have jumped on the bandwagon just like their neighbors and relegated their old wood stove and wringer washer to the barn.
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