Perhaps your Prius is your daily driver? If my Prius were my daily driver I would very likely agree with you. But, last week I drove a Nissan Versa, Ford F-150, Volvo 850 and of course the Prius. Compared to all the others, the Prius is just notably different.
The Prius is my daily driver but I drive my wife's Honda Accord and drive different pickup trucks at work. Yes the Prius is different but I know it is different so still no big deal to me. To me it is different in a good way, not a bad way that it seems to be to you. Different strokes for different folks
now I get into my other cars and try to figure out where the start button is....not in my prowler that's for sure!!!
Anyway, glad to hear that the OP is OK. If you had parked the car inside your garage, you may not have been around to tell the story! Directed Electronics (maker of Viper, Clifford, Python, etc) has this neat little feature called Engine Idle Protection System. When you have one of their remote starter units installed in your car, if you ever leave the car running without the keyfob inside, it will shut the car down after 3 minutes. This is a very neat safety feature IMO.
I get in my wife's car and look for the Power button. Then I realize that I have to get back out and get a real key out of my pocket
It was user selectable in my v3. I have not owned a Gen 3 Liftback so I am less sure for that car, but it looks like the dealer does it. http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM47685U/pdf/sec_06-02.pdf Page 3 of the PDF, page 598 of the manual
Is that pdf for the Gen3? I don't think the auto door lock function is available here, but it looks like it is in the US.