>> ...where the “friction” of in-person interaction is eliminated. That friction is the stuff of social connection — a world without it is nightmarish.

If one orders food one usually doesn't want to waste time talking to a waiter or the delivery guy: he has friends or an activity he wishes to return to quickly. Why waste time with the delivery guy?

>> they were tech workers who spent so much time working that they felt they had little time for anything else.

What wrong with that? It's these obsessive people that end up moving mountains.

>> Instead of cutting back and finding a healthier work-life balance

Be a consumer, wageslave! Stop trying to make something out of yourself!