grats, tips and service charges; a manifesto

I understand our nation/culture expects certain hourly wage jobs to earn gratuities & tips for a job well done or going above & beyond in service. But, there is the key point for me; going above & beyond recognition..... not a gratuity for simply doing the job as stated.
The gratuity rate rule of thumb used to be 10%. Slowly, it crept up to 15% and 20% and now, in some hotels exceeds 22%! In the last 10 - 15 years, I would say that I have noticed a slow progression to this being an expectation rather than a judgement and that expectation is now not only from the hourly employee but from the company that is artificially offering low wages to the worker expecting them to make up the difference in gratuities.
I am tired of this trend! I am tired of reaching into my wallet for every single person that comes in contact with me. It feels like panhandling.
My manifesto; businesses should stop putting worker wages on the backs of the public and pay staff a reasonable wage for the job without depending on gratuities. A gratuity should simply be a bonus. Businesses that are adding them to your dinner check or hotel bill without you choosing have just crossed the line from gratuity (discretionary) to service charge (mandated) and then it should be a taxable item. Additionally, what if the gratuity is added to the our bill but the service was horrible? Should we feel obligated or should we challenge it? I always chose to challenge.
Lastly, if I am paying a gratuity as part of my contract; dinner bill, hotel fees, etc..... I expect then to be paid to the worker.... not pooled and allocated after the business (hotel) takes a cut and then other servers get to equally share. Again, this violates the service recognition part of offering the gratuity; I was served by the dinner staff and my server should receive it and not the lunch staff whom I never met and certainly never provided service to me.

My final solution would to just drop gratuities and tips entirely from our culture / cultural expectation. Pay living wages, hold staff to service standards as expectation of the job and recognize above and beyond service differently... not using compensation. This would make for happier employees and more comfortable situations when we come in contact with service staff.