Wife had this vehicle Anna overall likes it. However, the radio controls on the back of the steering (other than volume) make no sense and almost unusable. Is there any way to "hack" these to reprogram them to different function? I think one side just cycles thru inputs (which she never used) and the button to cycle thru saved stations only goes 1 direction so can't go back to previous station very easily

Generally, you can't reprogram a button like that.

What you can usually do is if there's a feature in a the highest trim model that isn't available in a lower trim, you can often reprogram a button for that feature.
For instance, if a lower level trim has seat heaters on or off, and a higher trim has high medium or low settings, you can usually reprogram that.