Comment by oulipo

In theory we should "cut intermediates" indeed, but if you read the article, she explains her product: a way to avoid confrontational conversations in coffee-shops, all while ensuring people who are staying a long time are not blocking a table without ordering. This is "orthogonal" to improving the coffee.

If anything this should "displace" (obviously it won't) some of the salary of waiters, who were before tasked to go yell at people with laptops, and now no longer need to do it. So it shouldn't theoretically take from the "money" for better coffee, but rather smooth out the atmosphere in the coffee shops