Jedi Dark Knight said:
Just as a side note just because something has buttons and switches doesn't mean it's more functional, but rather it's less sophisticated. A lot of it looks like elements from today's society? back in the seventies everything looked like the Falcon: switched and buttons, technology has advanced to the point you don't have to have a dashboard with fixed buttons, but rather it can reconfigure to the situation in a nice touchscreen. You put the example of the Jedi fighter and that ship still has a lot of screens.

Let's also not forget that these films don't take place in our future. And sometimes using something from our own time helps lend things a bit more credibility, "grounding" it in our experiences if you will. Sure, the PT stuff looks kinda cool, but it doesn't feel like it "works" IMO. While the OT stuff looks "dated" to us, it feels like I could walk up to it and figure out how to fly the Falcon if I wanted to - it could "work."

I know that's not the most articulate argument, but that's the whay I see it.