The waiter bothering you is not about trying to seem helpful in pursuit of more tips. It is because they want to nudge you to free up the table for the next customers. Sadly, this same culture of asking you every five minutes "Is everything OK/Can I get you something else" is spreading in Europe, because the business owner wants to boost turnover, ambience be damned.
The centuries-old concept of the intellectual cafe in Central Europe where you could order just a coffee and then spend two hours at the table talking with your peers, is now dying out: the proprietor wants you to drink your coffee quickly and then either order more or get out. Sometimes the business owner intentionally plays bad pop music loudly, so that it becomes uncomfortable to maintain a conversation in the long term.