Panasonic PV-D4743 DVD Player / VCR Combo

I own this unit for half a year now. It works flawlessly so far, but there are some design elements that make this Panasonic a source of constant irritation.
On the positive side, both DVD and VCR sections have solid build feel, operate smoothly; tape transport, in particular, is very fast.
Remote control has tiny buttons that are all alike. If I am watching a movie in the dark, there is NO WAY I can find the pause or stop button. I have to position my fingers on the buttons beforehand, and hold the remote control at all times while watching. Only then I can pause, stop, skip commercial etc.
Console display is very, very poor. It does not display the counter for VCR or DVD (only on-screen at a press of a tiny and well-hidden button). In fact, during playback, it displays nothing but PLAY. It does display the timer for instant time recording, which is nice, JVC and Toshiba combos do not have this.
I kept this thing, because there is no clearly dominating alternative among VCR/DVD combos.