Please read what I wrote: "all the work is done by people who are, from the perspective of citizens, quasi-human automatons."

The citizens of the Gulf states do not regard the workers as people. That's bad, but if you replace those workers with actual automatons--AIs and robots--then it seems like the system would keep working (from the perspective of the citizens) while removing the immoral aspect of it.

Of course; to you and me they are human. To their bosses, they are chattel. We’re getting to that attitude even in america by my ken