Definitely a fair point but I'd rather spend the 10 minutes sitting at a table with people I came to hang out with rather than standing in line with strangers. In a past life I spent 15+ years in the restaurant biz and know it well. The new minimum wage and scheduling laws have made it nearly impossible to succeed in some areas. This makes labor/staffing even more critical and many managers cut staff which results in the kind of scenario you outline.

I like the idea of tablets, etc. but understand some people might be turned off. The whole concept of servers has always been a bit off IMO. Guests have just never had to think/plan ahead at all. People (like my wife as a great example) will run the server 3X for separate things just because she can't be bothered to think ahead 5 minutes. For some reason when we eat dinner she manages to bring the ketchup AND hot sauce AND extra napkins to the table in one trip I always tell her I never want to touch what the server brings on the third trip since it's probably been on the floor (or somewhere worse )