Well, to me at least, I have very little stake (or steak) in the outcome of lack of outcome in any empirical study of customer dining habits. If I owned a restaurant I would certainly have more interest.
As to your second statement: As long as I can order what I want, or choose not to order at all, then I don’t care whether the restaurant is secretly trying to manipulate me. I know how to say “No, I don’t want you to jumbo-size my order.” Alternatively, maybe I want them to jumbo size it for an extra 50 cents or whatever, and save half for later. It’s win-win.
To paraphrase Bill Murray, “It just doesn’t matter!”
There you go. A sensible response. I agree.
Well argued.