I agree that simple is better.  But ... I don't think that new vehicles are
more complex because it keeps repair places in business or to sell more
parts.  Vehicles are more complex for a couple of reasons (probably more):
1.  Federally mandated emissions regulations.
2. Need for safer cars, for legal reasons probably.

New cars with OBD II and III pollute far less per HP than our digifant and
digijet vanagons.  That's a fact.  New cars also get better gas mileage per
HP than anything from the 80s.  Less pollution and better fuel economy -
that's the price of complexity.

I believe that a digifant vanagon has lower total emissions than a
carburetted Type 2, correct me if I'm wrong though.  Carbs don't have
feedback, among other technical advances, so you could never build a new
vehicle with a carb and have it meet current emission requirements.

New cars are also safer than anything made in the 80's.
Air bags and ABS are both good things IMHO.  Remember when seat belts were
still an option?

New cars are not as hard to fix as some people think.
Vehicles with OBD I and up also all have built in fault diagnosis and
datalogging.  You don't necessarily need to know how the whole thing
actually works to fix it.  The ECU will tell you what is wrong and what part
to replace.  This ECU function is required by law.

Just my opinion.

Gary Lee