When your water glass never gets quite empty, and the flat bread never quite runs out, and you're not sure how that happened because your conversation was not interrupted, and your food arrives hot and when you look around to get the bill and it arrives just like that. When service is really good the restaurant feels like magic. That's worth a lot.

Yes there is. I enjoy being waited on and a good waiter makes a big difference to my enjoyment of the meal, plus I know some of that tip is getting kicked back towards the kitchen and cleaning staff. I used to work as a cook and quickly pick up on whether a restaurant is a nice place to work or not.

I'll just note that you mean the "real value of going out to eat, in my opinion". Because there's no way I personally would put "food quality" at the top of the list over "atmosphere of being with friends". I'd even put convenience over food quality, otherwise fast food would dry up overnight.

Ordering - there could just be a tablet with an app that lets you see the menu, answers all your questions, shows you pictures of the food and nutritional info and stuff, and lets you order when you're ready.

Water refills - just provide each table with a pitcher.

Bringing food to you (and other things like condiments) - One option is to still have servers bring it to you. But it would cost much less because the ordering app lets them be more efficient with their time. Another option is to have the tablet alert you when your food is ready, and you can go get it.

Not quite true. A good server not only takes your order and brings your food, but they also act as quality assurance on your behalf, which provides a lot more than 1% of the value you are receiving. Furthermore, despite the misinformation in the article, most restaurants do under the table tip pooling among employees.