Weighing scales and workflows

I feel as if I ask little of weighing scales. Perhaps they could have some kind of reset-to-zero calibrating function but mostly I would like them to display the weight of what is on them. In our brave new world they instead have some kind of workflow built in: for instance, many once they think you have weighed what you want will flash and freeze the display then maybe turn off or something, and then not be quite pleased if one simply just steps off then on again in an attempt to trigger them back into doing their job. One can have to do quite a dance with pauses and steps in order to sample a variety of weights.

This kind of workflow assumption annoys me enough in others' equipment - I would gladly preferentially patronize a grocery store whose self-check-out machines did not care how I use the bagging area - but is even more annoying in equipment one buys for oneself, when it isn't apparent until after purchase quite what interactions are offered. If only devices could be persuaded to work simply. It's like network routers that just can't resist faffing with packets that were perfectly fine as they were thank you, but at least with those the manual is often available online as a PDF and one can peer at screenshots of configuration screens before purchase.