Comment by JeremyHerrman

author here - I made this comment elsewhere, but I still think apple made the right call even if it leads to a bit of confusion at first.

As others have pointed out, sliders have limits & knobs don't, so I do think they have their place on touchscreens.

If a digital knob needs to be turned several times (e.g. 1080º, common in DAWs), the "default" way to interact with a knob on a touchscreen - circling again and again - is slow and uncomfortable. Adding "slider" gestures on top of the default behavior is a nice way to perform many turns quickly and easily.

I'm curious - what UI mechanism would you use instead?