It's a pity that DHC didn't really take advantage of the cockpit technology available for the -400. Decent synoptic pages, an updated warning system and maybe even "dark cockpit" overhead panel would have made the 400 a much nicer plane
You are certainly right, but we and Horizon are to blame not Bombardier. We insisted on as much communality between the DH8/300 and the DH8/400 cockpit as possible.
Our position during the definition of the DH8/400 ist understandable. In these times it was not clear that the authorities would allow CCQ (Cross Crew Qualification) between DH8/300 and DH8/400 and so we wanted the cockpit design of the DH/400 to stay close to the DH8/300
Operators like SAS with no mixed DH8 fleet naturally demanded a more sophisticated cockpit design.