What purpose do electric door locks serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?

An oligarch's fancy?

I'm sure in product meetings it's been brought up that it's a dumb thing and they could save money and make the cars safer by not having them, then the oligarch speaks up.

The purpose of the electric latch is to save the frameless window panes. It can lower the window slightly in the instant before it opens, to break the seal and avoid torsion on the glass.

Now, frameless windows are stupid and not necessary, so theres that. One dumb idea propagates another.

The problem with having both is that the electronic one is always the primary one, and the one people will use daily.

Yeah that's the design flaw. Thats literally what im saying they shouldn't do. You can make a mechanical-first door with an internal solenoid thats capable of popping the door.

The main and only handles on all the doors should be mechanical only, with door popper buttons for all four doors on the driver-side arm rest (where window controls go)

What purpose do electric door handles serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?

Electric door poppers ARE NOT the same thing as electric door handles, pick a thing to complain about.

POPPERS (IE:solenoids) allow the driver to open doors for passengers, while also ensuring the main way in and out is NOT dependent on electronics (when properly implemented).

Unnecessary luxury? Sure, but so are cars in a lot of the world. Solenoids are cheap, and the idea is not inherently a danger when done right.

Your issue isn't electronically controlled door poppers. Its cars being made by silicon valley, y-combinator sucking, tech-bro douchebags who thought replacing the mechanical handle with a button was a good idea.