This thread (especially Wade's mountain dulcimer story) sent me down a short rabbit hole of machine tuner history... Interesting stuff on Wikipedia, including how violin players still today insist on retaining friction-based tuners despite the availability of modern, and unobtrusive machine heads for violins.
"Musicians playing certain instrumental families, most notably the violin family (excepting the double bass) remain resistant to the use of machine heads, insisting on the continued use of friction pegs. The fitting of them on instruments in these families is often regarded as 'blasphemous'. Such factors as appearance, tradition, and simplicity, among others, are cited as justification. This resistance remains despite the well-known issues with friction pegs losing tuning, coming loose, or jamming."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_head
So when it comes to insisting on form/tradition over functionality, looks like guitarists are hardly the worst of the lot!
and here's an interesting link to one of the first machine tuners, from the 1700's for a cittern:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_tuners