No, its proof that there is a distinct class of restaurants where tipping was never a convention; it doesn't say anything about the ease or difficulty of getting rid of it where it has been a convention.

Culture is path-dependent.

> No, its proof that there is a distinct class of restaurants where tipping was never a convention

The existence of such a class of (low end) restaurants without tipping proves that it is possible to get rid of tipping altogether at low-end restaurants. Which is exactly what I said.

> it doesn't say anything about the ease or difficulty of getting rid of it where it has been a convention.

This is besides the point. I didn't say anything about the ease or difficulty of getting rid of tipping.

> The existence of such a class of (low end) restaurants without tipping proves that it is possible to get rid of tipping altogether at low-end restaurants.

No, it proves that there is a class of low-end restaurants (and "fast food" is not coextensive with "low end" restaurants, its a subset of them) where there is no tipping to get rid of, not that it is possible to get rid of tipping in any of the places where it exists.

No, I said it is possible to get rid of tipping at low-end restaurants, i.e. it's possible to have low end restaurants without tipping. Do such low-end restaurants exists? Yes they do. Fast food restaurants are examples of such restaurants.