> As if the whole purpose in life is to reduce friction from our lives. It's not.
Purpose? No. But it does feel really good not to have friction with silly things in your everyday life.
> That is, people who might save an hour's time by automating activities don't go out and spend that hour productively. Likely they'll find something else that'll use up their time.
Why do you say so? What's objectively productive? Doing nothing with the extra time may be actually a productive / useful solution. If your day is full, just removing stress from life is great.
> we have people who work in industries which are automating jobs away [say Uber, or even supermarket automation, HFT, etc.] but who on the other hand want authentic hand made or bespoke items
Do they? Some probably. But generalising like that over whole industry's lifestyle is silly. Even if you do see those items, maybe they just buy something cool they like, which is simply not what's mass produced and stocked at Walmart.
I feel like you're trying to criticise lifestyles of other people, but don't see a real reason for it.