IIRC, there was an Al Krug photo essay that stated and had photos for why he hated the desktops, and preferred the old style control stands... http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/cabtour/cabtoura.htm
The desk top has undergone quite a few changes since it was first introduced. Some railroads were quicker to embrace those changes than others. It was very un-organized when first introduced. Nowdays, it is a much better arrangement.
I was gonna say, even railroad to railroad, you can see the variation in control location and type. These kind of human interfaces never stay very constant. I bet, proceeding from my last post that if you were to take a tally on every different railroad, you'd get a different answer for what they liked on each.