Actually what I think is going on here is that McDonalds has switched from frozen to fresh beef patties to better compete with chains like Five Guys and Wendy’s. Their premium burgers are now cooked to order.
That requires more labor at the grill. Not wanting the labor cost line on their P&L to change, nor long wait times for customers, they are shifting man-hours away from the counter and back to the grill.
that makes sense. And they can pay the cooks more