If you disassemble a steering wheel with any sort of wires in it (steering wheel controls, airbag, etc.) You'll find a "spiral cable" that winds tighter when the wheel is turned one way and more loose when it turns the other way. If you run out of factory wires it's not that difficult to dissasemble the unit and run more wires.
My 1986 Grand Am with no airbags and no cruple zones was fine. You see show cars that replace the steering wheel with billet wheels all the time. What's the problem?
I could see a sweet system where you basically have a large LCD mounted in the center of the dash, but a small touch LCD functioning as a "soft key" remote in the steering wheel.