There is still hope. Microwaves use to have a lot of buttons, but since a few years ago there are some models with only two buttons: “Add 30 seconds” and “Cancel”. I think that most of them are used in public places, like the University cafeteria.
At home, my microwave has only two dials “power” and “time”. I like the time dial, because it’s easier to choose the time analogically that convert it to digits and choose which buttons to push.
The difference being that with a microwave like that if you screw up and add too much time the worst that will happen is that you'll have ruined your meal (and I am expecting that most people are not using microwaves to cook things that cost over ~$10 pretty much ever). If you screw up with a washing machine, even a super dumbed down one, the stakes could be a lot higher; try explaining to your wife how you ruined her $200 (or even $2000) dress because she spilled spaghetti sauce on it and so you pushed the "very dirty" button.
In a sense, I think that washing machines are so popular and there is such a wide variety of them because they do a very good job of selling a lie, and that lie is something like, "I will make it so that you do not have to think when you do laundry." People who have to interact with these machines tend to realize that this is a lie pretty early on, and that no, you still have to think to use the machine. However, the sheer magnitude of things they have to think about (colors, material, water temperature, volume, intensity of spinning, detergent, surfactant) can be overwhelming. When coupled with the fact that there is usually no good, solid guide that you can just read and go "Oh, now I know exactly how to wash all of my clothes and have no fear that they will get ruined!" and the fact that the washing machine is still sitting there, whispering that lie at you, that this should be easy because you have a washing machine, the cognitive dissonance can get pretty strong. At the same time, it's subtle enough that we usually don't realize that if we took a couple of hours to study it and better understand how these things work we'd probably be fine. So instead we cautiously try to find a couple of collections of settings that work pretty well for most of our stuff. Once we find them then we stick with those programs and usually it works out pretty well, but there's still that tiny fear in the back of our minds that maybe this time will be the one where something goes Horribly, Horribly Wrong.
I usually do the laundry. I’ll just repeat one of my sibling comments:
I use my washing machine regularly and it’s easy. Always use the “11” program (35°C=95°F). You can also use the “1” program (90°C=195°F) if you don’t want to see your cloths again. It has all the numbers between 1 and 16, but I guest they are not real, only for cosmetic purpose :).
[Note: She once used “1”. It was not a good idea.]
I separate the cloth by color: white, blue, red, black, yellow+green, gray goes with white or black. (Be careful with blue, because it will usually stain the other cloths. Sometimes red may stain too, but blue always stains.) Always in “11” (35°C=95°F). Then dryer.
Personally I feel microwaves are getting less usable. They used to have a numpad and a "Go" button. Now they have dials, programs, modes, and of course cryptic iconography.
The reason that microwaves and washing machines are like this is that the two use cases "Buying an appliance" and "Using an appliance" are wildly divergent, as patio11 hinted. When using an appliance, your thought is, "Just let me push one stupid button to accomplish this task and get on with my life." But when shopping for an appliance, you are weighing cost, features, aesthetics, brand name, perceived value, and so on.
We can tease that this is due to gender roles, but the fact is that I know all the above, and yet I just spent 25 minutes in a Target trying to decide which toaster to buy.
At home, my microwave has only two dials “power” and “time”. I like the time dial, because it’s easier to choose the time analogically that convert it to digits and choose which buttons to push.