Please don't take away any of my TV remote controls

New York Times writer David Pogue starts his recent tech article with a couple of questions:

What if I told you about a new product that could improve your TV picture, eliminate one of your remote controls, simplify your home-theater setup and save you money every month? And then what if I told you that your local distributor wished, in its heart of hearts, that nobody even knew about it?  The brilliant invention really exists. It's the CableCard...

Apparently, every cable company has this feature available although they don't promote it and most seem to discourage using it.  But if your TV has a slot for the CableCard and you can use that instead of a clunky separate cable box (which means you have to use a separate remote control), then why wouldn't you?  Perhaps because you are now used to having lots of remote controls and being confused about how to change the channel or change the volume?