The AC does not keep the car warm. The HVAC system does. The AC settings specifically do two things. They lower the temperature of the car, or a blend door is used to allow air cooled by the AC system to mix with air heated by the heater core to provide temperature between the absolute maximum heat and the absolute maximum cold.

But regardless, you tell it to keep your car at a specific temperature. That's not how I or seemingly most people use their climate controls.

On days where I used to have drill, my drilling station was something like 70 miles away from my home. If it's not raining and in comfortable I don't turn on the climate control system at all. But weather absolutely can be much different there than it is at my home. Climate control is there when I need it. Same as manually controlled headlights, or, wipers, or the map light. I don't need to take my eyes off the road to press the dedicated defrost button. I drive a manual car so taking my right hand off the wheel for shifting is normal and I really don't understand why anyone would advocate for changing any of those settings to a touch screen.