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To order everything all at once and upfront and to ask for the bill immediately sounds rather depressing to me.

I go out to restaurants to enjoy and have fun, I don't project-manage what everyone should order in advance. The experience is more enjoyable if things are spontaneous depending on how the meal has gone so far. A case in point is desserts and there is a reason the traditional way is to order desserts after the meal: It let you order based on how you feel after you have eaten!

Yeah, it sounds to me like someone either got grumpy waiting in line or waiting for the waiter to bring a check, and now thinks the whole culture has to change to suit them. I mean if you really want to prioritize your time efficiency over everything else, stay home and stick a frozen dinner in the microwave.
I definitely didn't write this essay because I was grumpy haha

My wife used to work in food service, and I was surprised when she told me that she preferred it when people asked for the check upfront, because that table suddenly wasn't taking up a concurrent process in her head.

This essay was supposed to be more about politeness than efficiency, but maybe I didn't express that very well :)

As a part time waiter, I agree with your wife about up-front checks being better.

In addition to the points you made:

- It's a waste of time deciphering social cues just to judge whether a table is ready for the check.

- If the restaurant is reaching closing time, I cannot close out the cash register until I have every check. The sooner I close out the system, the sooner I can let core waitstaff go home. Keeping staff around for one or two late tables is a waste of resources. Better to have the checks up-front and close on-time.

Maybe if that's why you wrote the essay, you could have mentioned it in the essay.
You’re right! Writing is hard. Sometimes it takes publishing something to discover the important bits. It’s easy to botch your message and to get lost in your own internal monologue
I work in academic publishing. That is my every day.
With me here, typically, first me get to order drinks, after the drinks are served, typically the waiter asks me for pre-course or main meal order. If I know what I want, I order all at once. If not, I order pre-course. While pre-course is being prepared, there's plenty of time to chose what I want. After the pre-course has been served, the order for the main course is done. Yes.

That takes more time, than ordering all at once. But, if I order everything at once, it get prepared nad served quite fast after another, while the first dish still isn't empty.

So that's a Problem! You get urged to swallow your meals as fast as possible. It's good for the restaurant, but not for me and my eating habits.

As I pay for that, I see that as not my problem, but rather a problem of other people.

The time savings last aren't that big. And customers who sit long spend more on drinks..

I hate trying to get the bill. My wife and I went to a restaurant in Paris on Valentine's night and it was mayhem people trying to get in. The meal was great, but could I get someone to bring me my bill, did they come back - it felt like they really wanted us to stay the night.