The humanoid form factor is the only viable shape for serving labor in a home

Furnace thermostat; furnace and air conditioner; communication devices.

Face it: we design robots optimally for their particular function.

Maybe the article intends 'serving labor' to mean menial tasks...

Dishwashers and washing machines still need labor to use. Even robot vacuums are far from being labor free because you need to keep the floor clear. When you have young kids that is a tall order.

Personally in the long term I want to get rid of my washing machine and dishwasher and robot vacuum and stand mixer and smart lock and basically everything "smart" in my home. I would much rather have a single humanoid robot servant that can do all those things manually for me, and completely automated instead of half-automated. The robot will be complex but the world will be simpler.

Despite their inherent complexity, humanoids will not be expensive. The unmatched versatility of the humanoid form factor will enable us to produce them at incredible scale, making them extremely cheap.

I also like that the tools they use are tools that we can use too. If your robot vacuum can't handle something you can't use it manually. You have to additionally get a regular vacuum to use yourself. But if your humanoid can't handle vacuuming something, you can just take the vacuum it's using and do it yourself. I want to live in a future where humans are empowered to do the same things our robots do, rather than a WALL-E future where specialized robots do everything and humans are impotent.