This actually looks like a pretty effective interface for users who are willing to be trained for months. Think about it: after you are trained, every piece of information is just one glance away and every action is just one button click away.
Reminds me of the often-told story about Apollo 12 and how a little-known switch resolved an electrical issue that threatened the entire mission, though in that case it was a person on the ground who instructed an astronaut what to do. The following four-minute clip is from the documentary "Failure Is Not An Option."