Personally i find the non assisted steering perfectly acceptable at anything above crawling speeds. In other words the electric motor would only be useful when stationary and/or at parking manoeuvres. So instead of having a black box deciding through sensors what i may need, we could just wire it through an on/off switch. Something like the city button on modern Fiats. If you insist on having things done automatically you could just use a single sensor, to let the system know if the car moves or not.
I must say that i am a little spoiled with the feedback they offer nice old unassisted steering systems like the one in the 1300 and the mini. The P6s, for what it is, it's not too bad either. PAS systems no matter how smart, always feel numb in comparison.
The worst are those latest systems that are artificially heavy to improve "feel". Drive a new Golf or Mondeo around town after the 2000 and wonder why on earth the steering is so heavy, it is supposed to have PAS! Get back into the 2000 and as soon as the car moves the steering is delightfully light. For me, PAS is only good for parking...