Laws prohibit it, so let's not shoot the engineers. There is enough other stuff they do wrong the way it is.
Read Section 27602 - Prohibited driving of motor vehicle if television receiver, video monitor, or television or video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal that produces entertainment or business applications is operating, Cal. Veh...
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Well, the Stellantis guys figured it out w/ a polarized coating on the front passenger display, they get a full LED screen in front of them and it just looks like shiny glass from the driver seat..so...there are ways to figure it out...just that GM didn't.
In Fairness, my kids are grown, and I (fortunately) could get a Denali w/ advanced tech package with NO RSE in 2022, you can't do that anymore.
But, my previous 2 suburbans both had factory RSE (DVD based), and the infotainment head unit, while it could not display the content of the video, it could be used to control the playback.
On the 2004, the DVD had to be inserted in the roof mounted player in row 2, in the 2013, GM figured out that the DVD player could be up front, in the infotainment system, and push the video to the 2 roof mounted screens.
Rear seat passengers had a remote in both vehicles and could control the system, or the driver or passenger could select tracks, play, pause, etc.
I used this feaure more than once to get the kids attention...amazing how fast you could squish a disagreement wtih a pause button up front.
So, I do think it was a miss by GM to not allow control of the RSE from the front seat...but I also agree that you cannot display video up there while driving, by law...(unless you do what Stallantis did w/ their Grand Cherokee and Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer implementations for front passenger entertainment).
Or, you can do what we did on road trips when I was a kid...
Listen to dad's radio station, play count the cows, the license plate game, read a book, watch the scenery out the window, or play cards with your sister. Just sayin...