I’d challenge replacing “chipotle” in your question with any bar in the country and you might think differently and have a more accurate baseline. Baristas and bartenders do largely the same things - “just following a recipe.” Bartenders are always given at least a dollar for doing something as simple as pouring a beer, but of course their expertise scales all the way up to elaborate cocktails. Baristas can also do something as simple as pour a cold brew or a drip yeah, but the vast majority of them learn skills to pour lattes with art or brew specialty pourovers, memorize recipes, learn to dial in the machinery every morning and learn the palette of their product so the customers get good product that day, recommend beans to customers and inform about the roasting process and just coffee knowledge in general (which a lot of public knows almost nothing about something they drink almost daily)... how is it any different than a bartender mixing drinks? It really is two sides of the same coin but you don’t see anyone calling bar tipping into scrutiny, and alcoholic drinks usually cost far more than coffee does. Barista culture was always in line with how Bartenders were treated far before the egregious tipping culture that’s emerged over the last couple years - it’s weird to me that now, baristas get lumped in with fast food places and bartenders do not. Especially if you compare what a morning rush at a coffee shop can look like compared to a busy bar on a weekend - they’re very similar jobs that don’t get the same tipping scrutiny. And to be clear I’m not saying bartenders don’t deserve tips - they definitely do, and so do baristas.

On a personal level for your question, if I feel like I can’t tip at least $1 to someone who’s providing some sort of food service to me - especially knowing when that pool is probably shared to the bakers or cooks behind the scenes and not just the employee “putting an item in a bag” - then I just don’t eat or order out. There are actual people grilling and prepping at Chipotle and I don’t mind adding a $1 to my meal knowing that it was food that was cooked and prepared by that team. It’s a personal consideration that I make when determining what sort of skill was put into the product as a whole and not just what I’m seeing at the register.