mini-rant about indispensable remote controllers

Why do some manufacturers of TVs and DVD players design their products so that the device is virtually useless without the remote? *sigh* My flatmate has an otherwise cool DVD/VCR but because he's lost his remote, we can't do anything with it but the bare minimum. Samsung says as much on its website. How many other people have equipment which has been orphaned from its remote and is thereby maimed? Having just been through a major move, I can say that it's fairly difficult to lose a DVD player, but quite easy to lose a remote controller, especially when there are so many of them around. The easiest solution would be if manufacturers always provided a way to access the menu on the actual machine.