I suspect manpower will take a new meaning here in the US in the near future. Those of us who have traveled abroad know what is coming. The fools here don't know what they've got, and what can be lost.
There are a lot of peculiar vehicles in China as well, most of them literally "man powered". I suppose those "engines" make enough to feed their families. I wonder if Americans will be charming to their customers?
In all seriousness, as a young sailor hitting all the major seaports in the Far East and not so major (when on a destroyer), I understood that this thing we refer to as "colorful, charming and happy, happy natives" was pretty grim to those sweating and pulling pedicabs, rickshaws and eaking out a living paying for the upkeep of a Jeepney and this was in the 60s.
Likewise, being S. Texan, we traveled Mexico a lot and have friends there and the same thing came over me when at Horsetail Falls near Monterrey, NL, Mex., we piled on a rubber tired buggy pulled by a bony but big-hearted little pony struggling up the incline and slipping on cobblestones. We all piled off with the same idea, paid the driver enough for serveral trips and told him to give the horse a rest, we could walk and not be heartbroken over the horse. We didn't enjoy the falls after that.
There's nothing wrong with a horse drawn buggy but within limitations of the animal for G-d's sake.
For sure your point about others being "charmed" by Americans in the same situation is well taken.