@lightonthewater,
Like you I agree it seems crazy that in this day and age we are using the most basic engines in light aircraft, whose only "automation" is mechanical spark timing advance and fuel mixture tracking with mass airflow into the engine, (within the carburettor). Having to adjust the mixture and apply carburettor heat manually is incredibly crude - and not a long way on from early cars, in which this as well as ignition timing also had to be adjusted manually and double de-clutching had to be performed by the driver.
Modern car engines are so automated now that they behave almost like electric motors: push one pedal for go, another for stop. Nothing else need to be thought about by the driver - not even gears in modern autos - leaving the driver to concentrate fully on the road and the driving task.
Modern cars are also incredibly reliable and will start on the first turn of the starter motor in any weather - without us even having to sit in the car during starting ! Who else remembers the "dawn chorus" in the '70's, of people trying to start their cars on cold frosty mornings, and then warming them up? - I have had similar problems trying to start Cessna 152's on similar cold mornings.
But, as others say, electronics would need to be backed-up in an aviation setting, and supplied by a backed-up power source, with the attendant complication of electrical busbars and contactors etc. Atmospheric conditions at even a few thousand feet agl can be much more challenging than those at ground level. So much as I hated the crudeness of having to do the mixture and carb-heat 'donkey work', it is probably here to stay unless one starts paying millions for light aircraft instead of hundreds of thousands.