Indeed it is. And if you look at it, most of the arguments against tech in general - including all the hand-wringing about AI, privacy and evil tech bros - they're all arguments against capitalism. But it would be boring to repeat the same thing that's been repeated for the past 100+ years, so people instead confuse symptoms with cause.

It's both. But it's definitely an argument I've heard used against increasing automation multiple times including in historical contexts, so I'm unsure why you are saying it is not.

We don't always get to pick independently. Capitalism is largely a force of nature. Even Communist societies end up becoming state-owned capitalist.