DTRL/FWS Computer/Standard CD Observation

[madlock]

Having now had the benefit of owning two differently-configured TC's both equipped with DTRL, and one with the FWS Computer and one without, I've noticed something that's very unusual indeed.

In my first TC (with FWS Computer), I often found myself forgetting to turn-on my headlamps at nighttime because the DTRL feature would effectively turn them on for me and, reinforced by habit from my other vehicles with automatic headlamps, it took me a while to become accustomed to manually turning them on. I would also overlook that I had not turned them on because other headlamp-dependent features, like the instrument panel lighting, would also illuminate regardless of the headlamp switch position.

One of the first differences I noticed with my second TC (without FWS Computer) is that the DTRL feature continues to provide headlamp illumination day or night, but the instrument panel now only illuminates when the headlamp switch position is not "OFF". After thinking about the matter, especially thinking-back to a time before I drove any vehicles with automatic headlamps, the my second TC behaves in the usual and customary way.

While the difference itself is neither here nor there, and it's actually more helpful to have visible evidence when I don't remember to switch on the headlamps, it does help to further distinguish how differently the headlamp programming for DTRL-equipped TC's equipped with the FWS Computer happens to be, in addition to the rather inexplicable effect it seems to have upon the FWS Computer's "Auto" Day/Night brightness setting. Why Ford would have somehow chosen to not make the FWS Computer's auto brightness setting time or ambient light dependent, or that DTRL should affect its function one way or another, is as inexplicable as the reason why DTRL and instrument panel lighting would behave differently between FWS Computer equipped TC's and those without.

I tried to think through the logic, but none of it reconciled. Both the FWS Computer and standard CD Unit have backlit controls which are equally necessary. And even if the FWS Computer's backlighting can't be controlled in the same manner as the standard CD unit's backlighting (i.e. it's binary rather than variable) it would still make sense that the FWS Computer buttons should be backlit any time the instrument panel requires illumination (i.e. whenever the headlamp switch is set to "On"), and not dependent upon the presence or absence of the DTRL feature itself. Combined with the disclaimer Ford slipped into the glovebox of FWS Computer-equipped TC's in the form of a strip of yellow paper stating the computer's "Auto" brightness is not DTRL compatible, it seems that Ford has really managed to make a convoluted mess out of what should be a very straightforward proposition.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or observations on this and why it seems to be so ham-fisted?