I am flabbergasted that anyone takes the hotel’s side in this. Yes, the OP personally is a bit of an unsympathetic character. But that doesn’t alter the corporate crappola here.
These newfangled thermostats are simply corporate enshittification writ large. Made convenient through the wonders of creeping computeriziation. What next, timers on the showers? Temperature limits to no hotter than tepid, not for safety but purely for cost savings?
This is pure nickel-and-dime enshittification and should be resisted by all hotel guests all the time.