That is the current advertising problem China is having right now. I understand that they have many aspirations to operate advanced military systems in the future. But they have the tendency of making displays and publications that are inconsistent with the current progress they are making, like this picture for example. It makes them look incompetent and unprofessional at times. And this is conflagarated by the fact that because China is less forth coming on its military capabilities, most information have to be gleaned from video or photo shots like these.
If you want to make a statement on the console that's fine, but going overboard to put contradicting photos on clearly non functioning console displays really makes one facepalm .
First of all, the Chinese military industrial complex does not really have an interest in "accurate" advertising. The ambiguity surrounding the extent of their technological advancements and the stage of their programmes have been a rather important strategic asset.
Second, when they are inconsistent with displays and proclamations, it tends to be that they understate the level of development or advancement they are at. Think about how many accurate reports from AVIC we had about J-20's development before 2010/2011. Or think about how many reports from AVIC we have today about H-20. Basically none.
Third and lastly -- I'm confused as to why you believe that this particular photo is "facepalm" worthy.
I'll describe to you my thought process, where I ask myself a few simple questions to try and ascertain what it's showing:
1: is this photo legitimate/real?
A: Maybe, probably is. For the sake of discussion, let's say it is.
2: what is it showing?
A: an air refuelling console, that is consistent with designs that we've seen from Airbus and Boeing for their refuelling aircraft that use the boom refuelling method. Probe and drogue
only air refuelling systems generally do not have these sort of consoles, especially not ones with a control stick that is used to control the tailboom. A control stick obviously has no role for probe/drogue refuelling.
3:is the console real, aka functioning or some kind of simulator?
A: probably not, considering the photos it is showing are obviously fairly simple depictions of a stand in air refuelling event. It is more likely that the console is some kind of mock up.
4: so what is this showing, in context of what we know of PLA air refuelling developments?
A: this photo is probably a photo of a
mock up console as part of research and development into an air refuelling system that has a tail boom component as well as probe/drogue component. The console in such an aircraft would be used to remotely control the tail boom (again, similar to modern Airbus and Boeing air refuellers) through a joystick and a camera/display, as well as additional displays at the top used to monitor probe/drogue refuelling that would naturally occur from refuelling pods on the aircraft's wings.
So overall, this photo seems entirely reasonable to me, and is consistent with what we can likely consider the PLA and AVIC are doing in terms of air refuelling R&D.
Unless you think it is somehow crazy for the PLA to be interested in a boom air refuelling method, I don't see what about this photo is particularly crazy.