Well, a very key factor of steering is that it connects your fingers to the interface between tyres and road surface and imparts critical information about what’s going on there. If you decouple the steering completely from the mechanical bits you have to recreate that channel of information. Which isn’t necessarily easy to get right.
Even servo assisted steering systems can easily become a bit numb. If you have ever driven a tractor it is very different from a light sports car without power steering for instance.
I drove an old redneck work truck once that someone installed assisted or power steering into. It also had a giant steering wheel from before that stuff was installed so it was comically easy to drive.
I’ve heard steer by wire can have faster feedback than pure mechanical systems. Even a mechanical steering has lag in cogs and there is never 100% stiffness in the steering column, etc.
I think the poster above wasn't talkng about input lag, but about the fact that the steering wheel acts as both input and output - you control the car through it, but you also get back information on the state of the car on the ad. If your motion was simply interpreted by computer, you would lose that information; so you in fact need a two way system, that reads your inputs and controls the car, but also reads the state of the car on the road and conveys that information to you.
Sort of like how gaming driving peripherals added force feedback to make the controls more intuitive.
This is untrue. I have also tested throttle by wire systems and found more lag. The auto industry needs it for emissions and markets it as better, it is not.
Even servo assisted steering systems can easily become a bit numb. If you have ever driven a tractor it is very different from a light sports car without power steering for instance.