Your ideal and my ideal are very different. My ideal restaurant scenario has me walking in and being recognized by the maitre'd/greeter who says "hey, kleinbl00! Welcome back!" at which point they guide me to my usual table where I'm recognized by one of the two or three wait staff I encounter regularly who ask me how I've been. They tell me what the specials are, but only the ones they actually like because honestly, the salmon cakes haven't been getting rave reviews. They keep my drink topped up and they bring me extra ketchup because it's easier for both of us and then they bring my check early because they know I like to get it out of the way before my guest really knows what's up and then linger over the table."

This is pretty much the situation I have at several restaurants. It's been suggested by industry players in a couple different places - get to know the good restaurants, get them to know you, and tip well to ensure that you are always treated well and always given preferential treatment. It's the exact point Isherwood makes - if I'm going out to not prepare food and drinks myself, I prefer my food and drinks to be prepared with care by people who are good at it. I'm not interested in dining at a restaurant where "no substitutions" means "no substitutions" not because they're busy, but because they're hamstrung by their technology.

Assistance-free eating has been around for over 100 years and it ebbs and flows in popularity, but it never crests to the point of people preferring it. The argument that the technology is in the "teething stage" holds no water when you consider that pushbutton menus were the rage at Sonic Drive-Ins back in the '50s.

The bar example is terrible. Speaking as someone who spent college mixing in bars something like 50-60hrs a week, the whole point of going to a bar is to go to a bar often enough that you get free alcohol. If you're meting it out a tenth of an ounce at a time there's zero point in me paying double to triple what it would cost me at the grocery store.