self-checkout lanes are not viewed as a bad thing by many. Given the option of a self checkout or staffed checked, I'd choose self checkout. The negative aspect of self-checkout is that it's usually paired with the store being understaffed, instead of redirecting the freed up staff to other roles.
yet another job where i can, in fact, actually do it better myself. i'm just as fast on the self checkout machines as the cashiers are on their point of sale systems. the buffered queue also helps tremendously, instead of the line lottery of checkout lines. again - simulated and optimized.
the other people that do self checkout are also basically young-ish, single/alone, and would rather be anywhere than the fucking grocery store checkout line. separating people who are interested in getting the fuck out of there with food from the people who are slow, clumsy, and deliberately take a long time to make sure all their tiny little nitpicks are addressed by a captive employee audience is the best thing to happen to groceries in the 30+ years i've been wasting my life 15 minutes at a time at stores.
I think the point here is that if you're the sort of person who does a weekly shop for a family, you can't possibly fit all of your bags on the scale, even at the largest self-checkout kiosks.
FWIW, I think your self-checkout experience is probably uncommon. I find that the barcode scanners at self-checkout machines are often poorly-calibrated, dirty, or just generally a pain in the ass. I say this as someone who spent five years doing tech support on point-of-sale equipment, where my job was quite literally to help people use their finicky barcode scanners.
https://ninanco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/4a-blurred-11...
BUT
Worth mentioning that this unit is twice as long overall than the units where I shop, which are set up two deep. I think with a scale this large, you’re halving the number of lanes you can support.
In other words - this is a solved problem.