Getting the friction down far enough that they could get the thing rolling would also mean low enough friction to store a ton of momentum and roll it over someo

Getting the friction down far enough that they could get the thing rolling would also mean low enough friction to store a ton of momentum and roll it over someone's foot. This thing probably masses ten times as much as any manually-actuated compact furniture I've seen. On top of that, consider accessibility. I'd be mostly fine hauling this around, but I know some people that weigh literally half what I do and others with joint or coordination issues. They would have trouble. Finally, this system is probably going to last way longer. Humans are really awful at using things carefully, while a mechanical engineer with some servos can control exactly where the force is. The "grease the rails and push" plan is great for getting it started, but then you've dumped a bunch of energy into the system and it'll have to be dissipated by running the thing into a physical stop, which is a recipe for vibration and stress that'd shake it to pieces in months. A controlled system can move the unit smoothly and carefully slow it down at the end of travel. I bet this is cleanly in Vimes Theory of Boots territory.