Honest question: Does a retractable/hidden door handle have any meaningful technical purpose?

This isn't exactly what you are asking but I wonder if it will be helpful: the hidden/retractable handles require power to work, unlike most car handles which are mechanical. So, the problem isn't that they are retractable and that makes them hard to trigger, it's that they just don't work if they don't have power/control signal.

Now they seem even more dumb as a feature to me.

Tesla door handle technically could work without electricity, because when you press one end in (risking to break your finger), the other end pops out and you can drag it. This is slightly inconvenient, but as I understand, the most problems were linked to dicks-for-hands engineers designing the car the way where doors can stay locked in case of an accident. So handle or not, you can't open the door and let a person out of a burning car.

They reduce aerodynamic drag which allows a couple more miles of range.

But there’s no reason to make them electric. Airplanes have had flush door handles for decades.

Recalled because of updated laws.

But:

As per a statement from a Tesla spokesperson, the Model X, Y, S, and 3 have hidden door handles. Tesla admitted that their current design “poses a safety hazard” and can impede users trying to exit the vehicle:

“In extreme situations such as a severe collision causing the vehicle’s low-voltage system to fail, this could hinder occupants from quickly opening the doors to escape and impede rescue efforts.”

Unmarked cables behind speaker screens

Oh wow thanks for the correction it's even worse than I thought 😅

Electric is cheaper and smaller. A local lever system takes up space and requires more machining and can interact with certain pricy patents. An electric one can be further away from the handle, smaller, and involve different, cheaper patents.

However, it is colossally fucking stupid on account of death

No.

You shouldn't have to know the special trick to opening a car door.

They already have levers on all Rivians, for example. You don't ever have to have the handles in "present" mode.

aerodynamics doesnt matter on the interior of a vehicle...lets be real, musk thought it would "look cool" and he cares more about looking cool than human safety.

Have you seen the last Guardians of the Galaxy movie?

The ones on the interior are because of the frameless windows. They allow the car to roll down the windows slightly before opening the door.

Other manufacturers like Audi also have electronic door handles on the interior of cars with frameless windows. But they use 2-stage door handles, so if you pull on them all the way there is also a mechanical release, not just a button. Much safer than hiding the mechanical release behind the speaker panel

exactly