Designers are often pretty clueless about technical underpinnings, and if they were always allowed to do as they're pleased, we'd end up with a lot of useless prototype mules. I do not argue the fact that it was his idea to arrange everything this way, but in my opinion allowing him to make this go into production is a huge mistake on part of the whole company, and there are people directly responsible, since it's their job to make sure necessary controls are present. They could hide a button somewhere where it's not normally visible as to not spoil the looks of the interior, or make the arm rest lid come off easy, make the stupid coin-lock into something better. They didn't.
And if a designer has the right to override all that, it's a massive management failure. You just don't let the fox into a hen house.