Waiters and waitresses work for tips. It’s part of our economy and culture. Europeans do it differently, but we’re in the USA. It is understood and agreed between the govt (that exempts restaurants/bars from paying the standard minimum wage) and the restaurants/bars that the bulk of a waiter/waitresses income will be from tips.
The alternative, for a restaurant to afford to pay a waiter/waitress in lieu of tips, is to raise prices of food and beverages to incorporate higher waiting labor costs. Your $100 tab would be $120-130, quality of service notwithstanding. As it is, you might leave a $20 tip on a $100 tab. Or you could leave a $10 or $50 tip. Customer’s option. Our current system is voluntary; waiters/waitresses take their chances that by providing good service they will be appropriately rewarded. Or not.
In this case, it could have been poor service; it could have been a cheapskate, who really knows? But a 1% tip is offensive, which may well have been the point. Or, it could just be a manufactured story.
It should remain voluntary.
No-one is going to work for $2.13 an hour, and nobody does.