That's not completely true.
If it's 50 degrees outside you can't get the air to vent it, the air will be heated even with recirc and AC turned off.
If you set the temp to 64 and it's 70 out, it doesn't cool the air, it allows the outside air to come in at ambient. If it's 50 out and you have the vent at its lowest setting, which is 64, I believe that it will heat the outside air to 64. But, then why not have the windows cracked at that point?
Just like the old systems, you still have a fan speed for the vents. If you have the fans off, you won't get any air. Every older car I had, had fan setting for off, low, mid, high. How is this any different, except you have more fan speeds?