I get self-service checkout. I pick up all my own groceries, I run them through the scanner, I scan my credit card, I take my receipt, bag my groceries, and off I go without ever talking to a person.
A self-service restaurant is a vending machine.
And they are working on a "self-service McDonalds". Where you go up to a kiosk and order your own food, and the machines deliver them.
The term for what you are calling "self-service" seems to in fact be Counter Service
I guess if you want to go through life calling counter service restaurants self-service, go right ahead. I'm not even going to argue the point.
Because MY point was that you didn't SERVE YOURSELF that McDonald's meal, a PERSON DID IT. All the things you fear from "bad service" from a waitstaff can happen with counter service at McDonalds. And yet you can get good service, and you don't have to tip, and they are paid a decent wage.
If you don't want to debate the point, that's fine as well. Getting hung up in a dubious terminology debate seems like a fruitless waste of effort.
Because God knows you wouldn't want to be confused when people talk about careers in Counter Service Or Drive-Through Service.
Or when people complain about the terrible COUNTER SERVICE at McDonalds.
You'll go crazy trying to run around correcting all those people shouting "that's SELF-SERVICE you idiot".
Your off-topic ramblings don’t change the fact that you don’t get waited on at McDonald’s by wait staff, you know, those waiters and waitress that work for tips that we were talking about—the better their service, the better their incomes.