What possessed a nineteenth-century inventor to replace the simple Anglo-Saxon plug with this complex mechanism of ratchets and rods

Upstairs, an hour later, I wondered for the thousandth time why the French prefer such a complicated system to drain their bathwater. What possessed a nineteenth-century inventor to replace the simple Anglo-Saxon plug with this complex mechanism of ratchets and rods – a dial to raise the valve? Constant adjustment is necessary to ensure that the bath doesn’t drain as you fill, or resolutely refuse to empty

S. Loftus, Puligny-Montrachet (1992. New ed. 2019), 269