I agree that the mode button has to be there, but the device button is located in two spots so getting rid of one would be no big deal. No one says that you would have to use them either. But there no arguing that they would be much more useful. Maybe they could even leave the mode button there and let it also have other commands. If it was a function such as stop or play this would work since mode has to be held down to access. Now whether this is tecnically possible I don't know.