Our dishwasher is cheap and mediocre because our house is rented but even so, having the *space* in our kitchen for any sort of dishwasher was a genuine quality of life gain of moving to America from London (where our kitchen was a tiny galley)

But yeah this sounds more like a story of Americans don't cook any more rather than, they can't afford dishwashers

Yeah, definitely sounds more like "I have a fork and a mug to wash up" than anything else. Our dishwasher gets set off a minimum of once a day, and over the summer 3 meals over 4 people generates more washing up than I'm prepared to put up with given an alternative.

Does take away/delivery come with disposable plates? Even just the two of us manage to fill the dishy every 2 days.