This isn't an alcoholic's reality unfortunately. I imagine they even wish it was!
There's always going to be another group of people who think that the setup is unfair. If the only group of people who feels left out is the set of academic alcoholics so early in recovery that being in a setting with alcohol is unbearable then honestly it seems fine to me.
Honestly, I mostly agree with you but I also think alcohol is entirely optional to human existence whereas food is not. So it's not exactly black and white.
Probably if we are all as thoughtful as we can be, the whole thing will keep mostly working :)