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The theory is not ironclad, of course. One problem is that most tuber-growing societies lived in the tropics, where there was also endemic disease that slowed the growth of complex civilizations. Anthropologists also point out that to the best of our knowledge, tubers were domesticated thousands of years after cereals, so societies that grew grains had a head start.

It also ignore the role of seasons in middle latitudes. In climates with long cold winters people are forced to plan ahead. They have a limited time to do everything they need to do to survive half the year of winter and early spring when nothing much is available to eat. They have to harvest and store large quantities of not just crops, but fuel and fodder to get them and their livestock through winter. They have to slaughter most of their livestock, only keeping the best animals for breeding. They have to prepare and store that meat by salting, smoking, drying or pickling it. And if they don't they die. That demands a level of planning and organization that isn't there if food is available to harvest all year round, and the weather is always moderate.

All of what you wrote reminds me of my long-ago childhood in Bavaria. A barrel filled with sauerkraut in the cellar. Glass jars filled with preserved fruits and vegetables, legs of smoked ham hanging from the rafters in the storeroom, potatoes kept in the dark, onions plaited together, hanging by the door...the cattle in the barn and the hay shed filled with sweet smelling dry hay. The farmer worked all day during spring summer and autumn just to survive winter.

Necessity is the mother of invention...survival is the driving force.