I guess the part that is throwing me is the switch. I'm not seeing any other signal wires going to it though (other than the A1 and A2 coil wires) so whatever logic it is doing for that "auto" setting must all be done internally. That switch is what made me think that maybe it reads ripple control signals because I know that is done in a lot of areas for using electricity off peak hours. But if it does read ripple control then it looks way different than any other ripple control switch I have ever seen because you're right, it does just look like a normal contactor other than that switch. I guess maybe it could also just have a built in timer like an old school freezer defrost timer module.

Yes this may be correct. There are two thin black wires besides the three phases and neutral coming from the main box below.

One of these black wires is connected to A2 of the contacter in the middle, of which I initially thought was just connected to neutral.