To say "bring menus back" isn't forward thinking. Menu's are gross, not all resturants bother to clean them because to do so is a burden on service flow. They're also an uneeded environmental factor.
This pandemic was a complete reflection of human laziness. With the technology we're spoiled with, if there's an effortless way to carry better hygiene habits, we should make use of it.
So to the author, you can be as bummed as you want watching customers stare down at phones. You can go ahead and paint it as some Orwellian fever dream. I don't want this planet's landfills to load up on slightly cracked Cheesecake factory booklets.