Government policy should strongly fund the design and production of robots in the US as noted in the article. Factories run by robots still employ many people doing jobs that work alongside the robots and also in maintaining the robots. The later are going to be high paying, frequently vocational jobs that do not require a college education but with (relatively) high compensation.
Yes, and people who run the robots will get experience in setting up and running said robots - they will also understand the direct requirements for the design/deployment of even more advanced robots. So if you hope to have an automation industry, you also need that feedback from the factory to effectively iterate products. Is this impossible at a distance - no, but it's a lot slower and less effective.