A very interesting read, thanks for sharing it. It is worth pointing out how most areas where we focus on automation are driving, production, summarizing and writing articles etc, while housework gets minimal attention.
This ties in very nicely with the other discusion held in the solarpunk community about how we have a lot of solutions already developed for a lot of problems, just not the political and societal will to implement them. And I do think that alienation is a major contributor to this, because it shapes people's worldview that that's just how life is. You do things you don't care about, and then you mind your own business because you essentially paid off your debt to society by being stressed or bored to death at work for 8 or more hours. People should care about what they do, and that work should have some meaning. What's the point of the economy, having a job and living in a society if it's not for the benefit of everyone? One could give a cynical Hobbsian answer and say that you're slaving away because the alternative is dread and chaos, but that's just not true when we look at societies from before industrialization (medieval guilds, ancient tribes, Greek city-states etc).
As a sidenote about public canteens, the Spartans in ancient times always ate their meals together in a communal place, never in their homes (except on very very special occasions).