It suggests to me that a lot of HN commentators have only been on one side of the interaction between service workers and customers.

Talking about tipping is easy. Literally every argument for and against has been made, repeatedly, in this very forum, so you don't have to think before replying. Your knee jerks and paragraphs come out and you score internet points.

Tipping is a semi frequently covered political topic here. Anything from corporate corruption, dumb Americans, any anecdote, and similar easy observations that don’t need you to read the article. Especially when “top comment” is on such an easy/well tread/low effort/acceptable topic, people here are far less likely to read the article.

(Personally I think the “top comment” is almost always worth collapsing. Though looks like you’re top now while I typed this)

Probably because he concludes the piece saying “Customers… if you don’t tip or act like an act like an asshole… workers will not be there to serve you.” Most of us have been customers at movie theaters, so we latch on to the part where he addresses us.

Meanwhile, we’re all experiencing an increase in expected tips, both percentage-wise and existing services newly asking for tips, which tends to annoy customers. It’s like hidden fees for airlines and airbnb and all that other shit. You know it’s coming, but it always annoys a bit, and it’s just growing.

I suspect a lot of people here have never worked the kinds of jobs being talked about. It's basically bikeshedding. Tips are easy to talk about and the rest isn't.