We could probably argue to the end of time about the qualitative quality of life between then and now. In general a metric of consumption and time spent gathering that consumption has gotten better over time.

I don't think a general sentiment matters much here when the important necessitate are out of reach. The hierarchy of needs is outdated, but the inversion of it is very concerning.

We can live without a flat screen TV (which has gotten dirt cheap). We can't live without a decent house. Or worse, while we can live in some 500 sq ft shack we can't truly "live" if there's no other public amenities to gather and socialize without nickel-and-diming us.

What was all this free time spent doing in the pre-industrial era?

Alternating between grinding your knife and making wood sculptures.

pre-industrial? Lots of tending to the farm, caring for family, and managing slaves I suppose. Had some free time between that to work with your community for bonding or business dealings or whatnot.

Don't think slave management was the average pre-industrial experience.

Depends on your region, but let's not pretend it was some rarity pre cotton gin. You didn't need to be as rich as yo think to have slave labor.

Quite the leap to go from "pre-industrial people" to "Antebellum US Southerners", and even then the majority of that (hyperspecific) group did not own slaves.

If you include all pre-industrial people in history, then yes enslavement of outside groups is very much the norm not the exception.

Citation needed.

Let's kill this myth that people were lounging around before the Industrial Revolution. Serfs for example were working both their own land as well as their lord's land, as well as doing domestic duties in the middle. They really didn't have as much free time as we do today, plus their work was way more backbreaking, literally, than most's cushy sedentary office jobs.