I love how the article made things like ala carte pricing (mentioned twice, once bemoaning the death of the "complimentary" snack and once with the sides being priced separately) and the prix fixe special not being a bargain to boot sound devious. I'm actually pretty happy with the first trend and hadn't realized that anyone assumed a set menu was supposed to be a deal.
One way or the other, you pay for the rolls before your meal. I prefer to know what I'm paying for them. It's nice to not have a salad I'm not going to eat "included" in my meal (with a nice "no substitutions" reminder), and it's not uncommon that I make a meal of the intended sides instead. Quite a few chain restaurants sell both incredible bread sticks as a side and a bowl of soup. That usually settles me and leaves room to share a dessert, although one or two waiters have made amusing faces when I did that. The occasional expressive new waiter is a true freebie thrown onto the meal, so I enjoy it.
I'll confess that withholding water ticks me off, it's just not gracious. I try to stick to drinking water at restaurants, perhaps with the once in a while glass of house red wine (Bertucci's, another chain, has some fantastic and reasonable carafes of house wine), but unsweetened iced tea for me and hot tea for my husband are our vices, if it's real brewed tea. I know it's a huge markup and I justify it to myself with the excuse that eating out at all is a luxury which I'm paying for, and considering my eating habits, I need to order
something to tip the waiter on!
The things I consider a rip off are sharing charges, included gratuities, minimum orders, cover charges (I got this at a family restaurant once because there was an event going on in town, it was in fine print hidden on the menu, so when it came up, we got up, paid for the drinks we'd already had and left), and meals where they require you to buy a drink from the bar (I ordered a Shirley temple from the bartender, who was pretty sheepish about it considering I was hugely pregnant).
With the cost of these drinks at $2+ at many restaurants, those must be the big money makers (profit-wise) for them. 
