No one said STI are more finicky than other index systems. Comments include that brifters (indexed) are more finicky than friction shifting. Most indexed bar ends (but not all) allow one to switch to friction. This can be nice during those times when the indexing starts to work less well (for many enumerated reasons) but one doesn't have the time, means, or desire to do roadside/campside adjustments or repairs.

I hope we don't start to refer to ourselves as operators and, by extension, bicycle systems operators.