Fast-food restaurants, for instance, have become gathering places for people who lack public spaces in which to spend time. Marcia Chatelain, a professor at Georgetown University and the author of “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” pointed out that McDonald’s, for example, had become a hub for various types of civic activity, from voter registration to the daily ritual of senior citizens communing over coffee.

“I think this structure of putting the preparation of food behind closed doors, it really disadvantages people who need the brick-and-mortar experience — or who really need to access the internet, warm up between shifts at a job, have a meeting point for them and their kids,” Dr. Chatelain said of ghost kitchens.

On the other hand, according to Callum Cant, the author of “Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the New Economy,” about his time as a delivery worker when ghost kitchens were introduced in Britain, they quickly became hubs for worker organization.

“In Nottingham, ghost kitchens were really useful,” Mr. Cant said. “You could chat to each other whilst you were there.”

That assumes that the ghost kitchen model wouldn’t eventually just eliminate the human element on the delivery side entirely. While Mr. Cant is skeptical of that logistically, he is familiar enough with the industry to know that the owners of the companies are hoping at some point to fully automate both production and delivery of food.

Mr. Chang is also familiar with those kinds of plans.

“The thing that might change this whole equation is when everything gets automated,” he said. “That’s when I think, personally, tech people will feel like: We don’t have to worry about this perfect balance with food. We’re just going to have computers make it.”