Futurology

Yes... the robot is more likely to dump too much salt on a batch of fries than the underpaid worker who is likely on at least one illicit substance to make it through the day.

As for the rest? Increasingly that is done at corporate by, you guessed it, a robot. Because (no idea on the youtuber but the process looks about right, just a lot cleaner and less frantic), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRlYugm69Y is how modern fast food actually works.

Because those variances actually do matter and human beings are a lot more likely to have problems maintaining consistency. And too thick/thicc of a patty and you likely have a pink-ish center and some boomer loses their god damned mind over not eating shoe leather at a burger king.

You are correct regarding cleaning issues, which is where this almost always falls apart. And that is true whether we are talking about the factory where the food is made BUT NEVER FROZEN!!!!! or the restaurant itself. But that needs far fewer workers than to actually run the assembly line itself. Same with having someone on call with a fire extinguisher (although, not having humans in the loop means it is a lot easier to automatically dispense food safe, but not human lung safe, gases that can even be pumped out and theoretically reused if the human isn't in the loop.. and you maybe slip the fire marshall a benji).

I assume the hill you are going to die on is t hat it is "not completely automated because there is still one person sitting around" and I really don't care to have that discussion because it isn't one. But I do strongly encourage actually watching training videos (and even just promotional youtubes) for how fast food works. Workers are already being dehumanized to the point of bringing the definition of "robot" into question and "Three shakes of the seasoning shaker" is just as easy to tell a human versus a robotic arm.

I'll add on. If you think Billy at McDonald's is tasting every batch of fries to make sure they are perfectly seasoned, I have a bridge to sell you. Ignoring the hygiene issues with that, their manager would immediately lynch them for wasting food and slowing down the process. And, Billy probably does a hundred or more batches of fries a day. They wouldn't be able to taste shit after the first hour.

Instead, the logic is that if your fries are improperly seasoned you will probably be ten miles away before you realize. And even if you dine in, odds are you have enough social grace to not be the person who cuts in front of the line and insists to speak to the manager because your fries don't meet your high standards.