Yeah, it's weird and arbitrary. It wasn't always "out of control". There was a fairly well defined set of tipped employees. It was a legally recognized categor

Yeah, it's weird and arbitrary. It wasn't always "out of control". There was a fairly well defined set of tipped employees. It was a legally recognized category -- they were usually paid almost entirely in tips. It was weird and arbitrary, but controlled. You just memorized the custom, like other mandatory social customs. Tipping got "out of control" during the pandemic, when we realized that a lot of face-to-face service employees were absolutely essential, and had to take their lives into their hands. People understood and wanted to do something. The existing tipping system was easily co-opted. It made sense, except that it steps right into the ugly "tipping is optional except that it's not" problem. Now that people aren't really risking their lives any more it should just fade out. That won't resolve the underlying weirdness, but it'll at least revert to the status quo ante.