There is something elegant about a pure hydraulic system that when all power is gone it still connects my brake lever to a brake caliper - i like the mostly fail safe implications of that design. As an EE, an MCU that decides to not follow its input 100% of the time - when say a wire gets corroded, shorter or disconnected gives me pause when it comes to reliably halting my multi ton machine at speed.

Trains have figured that out just fine.

Why is a hybrid electric-hydraulic not an option? Seems like you would get the best of both worlds by using the precision of electronics to manipulate the oil, instead of the brake caliper directly. I was imagining something like a master-cylinder-by-wire system with a normally open valve to pedal in the event of electrical failure. Agreed, full electric brakes gives me the creeps.

I noticed that the cruise control in my EV would press the brake pedal to slow down, and was surprised for about 0.2 seconds as I came to a similar realization about the joys of having working brakes.