I do use the steering wheel buttons to raise or lower the volume on my music or forward past a song, but I don’t have to take my eyes off the road to do that.
I also use the steering wheel buttons to adjust volume and go back one track or skip forward. It’s a VERY handy feature. My Bluetooth in my 2014 Expedition started acting up (dropouts on Spotify — not sure if it is Spotify over cellular or Bluetooth), so I just switched to a USB wired connection from the phone to the car. I was afraid I would lose the steering wheel control of audio, but it works fine!
It’s amazing that the 11 year old tech in the car is still working fine with my modern iPhone 16 and latest IOS.