I'm a firm believer in better salaries rather than pushing the burden of sustaining an employee directly onto the customer by keeping an air of shame if you don

I'm a firm believer in better salaries rather than pushing the burden of sustaining an employee directly onto the customer by keeping an air of shame if you don't follow the "accepted tipping guidelines". Whenever I've been to the USA I feel I'm being scammed every time I'm required to tip. I know it's your culture but it feels like an emotional extortion, if I don't tip I have to bear the weight of an underpaid employee not making ends meet because I don't think it was fair to see a price and then have to mentally add "20%" just because someone served me. Worse, for me this culture makes me very uncomfortable by the level of service, I can tell when a waiter is miserable and just fake smiling to get me to tip more. When a waitress is over-the-top charming and nice while being berated by the kitchen staff for a misplaced order, etc. It just makes every service I get feel fake and forced, to the point where I've avoided going to eat somewhere on days I'm exhausted because I don't want to deal with that weight on top. I'd much rather just pay 20% over the price and know that the staff is well paid. Tipping culture just opens a can of worm of abuses...