I can vouch for the cleaning power of the Pot Smasher cycle on Whirlpool dishwashers. When they came out with the Power Clean module, they tested it with a Big Mac placed in the lower rack. By the end of the cycle, the dishwasher had completely consumed the sandwich, with no tell tale bits left behind, not even an oniony belch or any cholesterol deposits in the lines.
The reason for abandoning the hidden controls is a bit more grounded in kitchen reality and customer clumsiness than in customer preference. The location of the tilt-out controls made them very vulnerable to spills on the countertop which could and would run into the controls on the way to the floor.