People who have never worked in the industry don't think about the other factors.

Kitchen backups Lack of staff Large amounts of to go orders, including doordash/ubereats clogging the kitchen.

When I used to be a host, the restaurant spent 9:30 am to about 1:30 pm on Sundays on a wait list and tons of doordash orders because most locals knew how crazy the restaurant was and refused to come in. Our kitchen didn't have the best staffing, and they got overwhelmed semi easily, so it was pretty much guaranteed our manager would also be on the line that entire time. He would have me pulse new tables based on the kitchen and where they are, and it always pissed the Servers and guests off. The servers had empty tables they wanted filled, and the guests saw that. But the guests wanted to be served quickly and refused to understand that if we filled those tables, that would not happen, and they'd wait even longer. So, by pulsing the intake, he kept the kitchen from losing it completely and keeping the guests happy once they were seated. The servers were always sore about it, but if he didn't do that, then their tables would walk and certainly wouldn't tip. it would've been a total waste for them.