It’s a bit shocking to me how often I receive negative or angry criticism when I share these thoughts though.

You receive criticism because you are wrong. Automation is just using technology to make things with less effort. I'm very happy letting a machine weave my clothes, rather than having to sit down and twist the threads to weave my clothes with my fingers. Eschewing automation wouldn't just result in less environmental waste - it would send us back to the dark ages, except worse, because we could not possibly feed and clothes the world's population without automated systems. Humans, desperate for food and shelter, would constantly be at war with each other and would chop down every forest and slaughter every animal in a desperate attempt at survival.

Meanwhile, there is no reason it must be awful for the environment or people. If single use plastics are a problem because they are cheaper than the alternative, then the solution is obvious: make plastics more expensive. This is called a Pigouvian Tax, and it is very effective. Any time we notice something which has a negative impact on the world, but which has no negative impact for its user, we just tax it until its use has been decreased to an acceptable level.

Dust and oils in a work environment are solveable by wearing PPE.

The unpleasantness of a job is solveable by making life affordable for workers so they can just quit if they don't like it.

These are all solveable problems, and I see no need to make the whole world way shittier to solve them.